Trade between China's mainland and its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) reached $97 billion in the first half of 2008, up 8 percent year-on-year, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed Wednesday.

The Chinese mainland's exports to the HKSAR reached $90.65 billion, and imports from the HKSAR reached $6.35 billion, up 7.8 percent and 9.8 percent respectively, according to the MOC.

The Chinese mainland attracted direct investment from the HKSAR in 6,900 projects, down 8.2 percent, and the actual use of Hong Kong direct investment reached $23.39 billion, up 94.5 percent.

As of the end of June 2008, direct investment of the HKSAR in the Chinese mainland totaled $331.93 billion in 292,663 projects.

The figures are cumulative, dating back to 1978, which marked the opening up of trade between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

HKSAR was the Chinese mainland's biggest investment source, accounting for 40.7 percent of all non-Chinese mainland direct investment.