North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region saw a year-on-year foreign trade growth of 13.6 percent to 23.8 billion yuan (about 3.48 billion U.S. dollars) with countries along the Belt and Road in first four months of 2019.

The region's import volume with Belt and Road countries rose 21.2 percent year on year to 16.51 billion yuan, while its export volume reached 7.29 billion yuan, down 0.5 percent, according to the Hohhot customs.

The total foreign trade volume of the region reached 36.02 billion yuan over the same period, up 11.9 percent year on year.

The region's foreign trade with Mongolia and Russia, its major trade partners, grew 32.4 percent year on year to 11.31 billion yuan and 1.1 percent year on year to 6.36 billion yuan respectively from January to April.

Last year, the import and export volume of the region hit a record high of 103.44 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.9 percent.