China's jewelry export grew 24.99 percent year on year to US$4.96 billion during the January-November period of 2005, figures from the Chinese customs show.

During the 11-month period, China exported noble metal jewelry worth US$1.826 billion, diamonds worth US$1.278 billion, and pearls worth US$128 million, statistics show.

Southern Guangdong Province contributes 55.43 percent of China's total jewelry export, which was 2.75 billion U.S. dollars.

The export volume of Shandong Province, Shanghai and Beijing municipalities, Zhejiang, Hunan and Fujian provinces stood at US$512 million, US$260 million, US$207 million, US$189 million, US$173 million and US$169 million respectively, ranking from the second to the seventh among all China's provincial regions.

China's capacity in jewelry process has been greatly enhanced in recent years, and the country is expected to become a world jewelry process center in the future.

Figures show that over 80 percent of jewelry sold in Hong Kong is processed and manufactured on the Chinese mainland, which now has more than 200 factories wholly processing jewelry for overseas markets.

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2006)