CHENGDU - The imports and exports of the Chengdu Hi-tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Southwest China’s Sichuan province registered $10.7 billion in the first eight months of this year, up 84 percent over the same period last year.

Its exports surpassed $5 billion, up 194 percent over the same period last year and accounting for 66.7 percent of the increase in the exports of the entire Sichuan province, according to Qiu Xudong, chief of the zone’s administrative bureau.

Thanks to the operation of the plants of Foxconn, the zone witnessed a sharp increase in the exports of portable tablet computers worth more than $3.6 billion in the first eight months, compared with $26,000 in the same period last year, he said.

The profits of industrial enterprises in the zone amounted to nearly 1.5 billion yuan, up 47 percent over the same period last year. The taxes they paid to the State surpassed 100 million yuan, up nearly 62 percent over the same period last year.

Approved by the State Council, the zone was set up in the Chengdu Hi-tech Zone in October 2010.

The number of its employees is expected to rise from 110,000 to more than 200,000 next year, Xu said.