In the first quarter of this year, the inter-border trade in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region reached 27.81 million yuan ($3.81 million).

That's according to a key conference on the construction of border ports held on April 15-16 in the region's Ereenhot city.

Since the beginning of this year, Inner Mongolia has promoted the high-quality development of its border ports, seizing new opportunities for further opening up to northern countries.

Seven border ports have already facilitated the travel of vehicles with eight seats or less.

Taking Ereenhot Port as an example, it resumed facilitating the travel of vehicles with eight seats or less on Nov 4, 2023, with a total of 84,000 vehicles passing through so far. The daily average number of people entering and leaving the country in these vehicles is approximately 6,000.

The conference also emphasized that Inner Mongolia will now focus on achieving full coverage and expansion of inter-border trade areas in its land ports.

Plans are for Inner Mongolia to support the application for the establishment of mutual trade zones in Ganqimaodu and Mandula ports, as well as to improve its exhibition and sales centers for mutual trade goods and secondary trading markets.

Furthermore, it will support the sale of mutual trade goods in conjunction with cultural and tourism activities in Manzhouli, Ereenhot, Arxan, Ergune, and other areas in order to expand the scale of inter-border trade.

Additionally, the conference also discussed the progress of the construction of the economic cooperation zone between Ereenhot in Inner Mongolia and Zamin-Uud in the Mongolian People's Republic, which was formally approved by the State Council on March 19 of this year.