BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's share in world's exports reached 8.8 percent by 2007, making it the world's second largest exporter, trailing only Germany, said the National Statistics Bureau (NBS) on Tuesday.

    According to a statement released on NBS website, China's foreign trade has been growing at an average annual rate of 17.4 pct to 2,173.7 billion U.S. dollars from 20.6 billion U.S. dollars since 1978 when its reform and opening-up began.

    With persistent government efforts to boost foreign trade and encourage investment, China's exports rose from 9.8 billion U.S. dollars to 1,217.8 billion dollars during the period, and imports gained from 10.9 billion dollars to 956 billion dollars, said the statement.

    China endeavored to accelerate its participation of the globalization process, especially after it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December, 2001, said the statement.

    The move had opened China into one of the most rapid development in history. Five years from 2002, China's exports and imports surged at an annual rate of 28.5 percent, breaking the 1-trillion-dollar mark by 2004 and over passing 2 trillion U.S. dollars by 2007.

    It is a drastic contrast compared with the decades before the reform and opening up of the country, when it took China 29 years to boost its foreign trade volume to 20 billion U.S. dollars.

    In 1978 China was a country burdened by trade deficit with scarcely any foreign reserves. Now it has became the largest foreign reserves holder in the world.

    The spectrum of exported products also moved from primary products to manufactured finished products, and from labor-intensive products to mechanical and electronic products and high-tech ones, said the statement.

    The mechanical and electronic products accounted for 57.6 pct by 2007, while high-tech products took up 28.6 percent.

    The European Union, the United States and Japan ranked as the top three trade partners with China, with trade volume of 356.1 billion U.S. dollars, 302.1 billion U.S. dollars and 236 billion U.S. dollars respectively.