The Chinese mainland saw its trade with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan maintain a strong momentum in the first eight months of the year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The mainland's exports to Hong Kong in the January-August period surged 23.1 percent from a year ago to 115.4 billion U.S. dollars, while imports rose 15.3 percent to 7.99 billion U.S. dollars.

Hong Kong had invested an accumulative 293.9 billion U.S. dollars on the mainland by the end of August, taking a 40.4-percent share in the total investment the mainland had received from overseas since 1978.

Trade across the Taiwan Straits rose 13 percent to 77.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months, with the mainland's exports up 14.4 percent to 15.2 billion U.S. dollars and imports up 12.6 percent to 62.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Taiwan remained the fifth largest investor on the mainland, with its investment adding up to 44.8 billion U.S. dollars by the end of August.

But ministry statistics show that the number of Taiwan-invested projects on the mainland decreased 5.5 percent to 2,216 in the first eight months, with direct investment shrinking 29.3 percent to 950 million U.S. dollars.

The mainland's exports to Macao reached 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in the eight months, up 21.9 percent, while its imports declined 3.5 percent to 180 million U.S. dollars.