BEIJING - The Chinese mainland's imports from Hong Kong reached $9.99 billion in the first half (H1) of 2016, up 130 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.

The mainland's exports to Hong Kong hit $132.7 billion, a decrease of 4.8 percent year on year, ministry figures show.

Trade between the mainland and Hong Kong totaled $142.69 billion?in the first six months, down 0.7 percent year on year. The figure accounted for 8.3 percent of the mainland's total overseas trade in H1.

The mainland approved 6,333 Hong Kong-invested projects from January to June in 2016, with the actual use of Hong Kong capital reaching $42.55 billion, up 8.8 percent from the same period of last year.

As of the end of June, 392,546 Hong Kong-invested projects had been approved by mainland authorities and the actual use of Hong Kong capital had totaled $875.87 billion.

The mainland's non-financial outbound direct investment in Hong Kong hit $45.57 billion in the January-June period.