Trade volume between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan grew rapidly in the first six months of 2006 to reach 50.2 billion U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Commerce said here Tuesday.

This represents a 22.2 percent year-on-year rise, the Ministry said.

In the January to June period, the mainland's export trade with Taiwan reached 9.57 billion U.S. dollars, up 23.5 percent year-on-year, while imports from Taiwan totaled 40.63 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.9 percent. The trade deficit with Taiwan stands at 31.06 billion U.S. dollars.

In the first half of the year, the mainland authorities approved 1,743 Taiwan investment applications, down 5.3 percent on the same period in 2005.

The potential contract value of the applications totaled 5.52 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.6 percent on the same period in 2005. To date, 1.03 billion U.S. dollars have actually been invested, down 12.2 percent.

By the end of June, the mainland had ratified a total of 69,838 Taiwan investments, 42.79 billion U.S. dollars of which have been used, the Ministry said.