Fourth, foreign trade entities have been further energized, with the private sector playing a more important role. In 2021, the number of enterprises involved in exports and imports increased by 36,000 to 567,000. China's private sector registered 19 trillion yuan in imports and exports, an increase of 26.7%, accounting for 48.6% of the country's total foreign trade volume and 2 percentage points higher than the previous year. Meanwhile, foreign-invested enterprises marked 14.03 trillion yuan in foreign trade, up by 12.7%; and state-owned enterprises accumulated 5.94 trillion yuan, up by 27.7%.
Fifth, exports and imports of electromechanical products maintained sound growth. In 2021, China's exports of electromechanical products increased by 20.4% to 12.83 trillion yuan, making up 59% of the country's total exports. Exports of automatic data processing equipment and its parts, cellphones, and automobiles increased by 12.9%, 9.3% and 104.6%, respectively. Meanwhile, imports of electromechanical products increased by 12.2% to 7.37 trillion yuan, accounting for 42.4% of total imports. The imports of integrated circuits increased by 15.4%.
2021 marked a milestone year in the history of the CPC and the country. Amid challenges and difficulties posed by the pandemic, China made outstanding achievements in foreign trade, which speaks volumes of its resilience. This is the result of the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Over the past year, China's customs have followed the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, kept firmly in mind the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core and keep in alignment. We have also strengthened our confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and resolutely upheld General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and resolutely upheld the Party Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. We have fully implemented major policy decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and got things done in a timely manner. Coordinated efforts have been made to prevent the pandemic at ports and promote the steady growth of foreign trade. Supervision has been strengthened and services have been optimized. With all these efforts, we have effectively promoted the steady growth in the volume and quality of foreign trade.
In general, our foreign trade has gotten off to a good start in the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021-2025). Looking ahead throughout this year, it will face more uncertainties, instability, and imbalance. The Chinese economy faces pressure from the three aspects of demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations. As the global COVID-19 situation remains grim, the external environment is prone to be more complex, graver, and more uncertain, with the recovery of international demand slowing down. In addition, because of the high foreign trade base in 2021, it will continue to face certain pressure in 2022. While facing these difficulties and challenges, we must also see that the Chinese economy is resilient and that the fundamentals sustaining China's steady and long-term economic growth remain unchanged. We must have firm confidence in stabilizing the fundamentals of foreign trade.
Next, customs will uphold the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress and the plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and earnestly implement the decisions and plans of the Central Economic Work Conference. Customs will continue to follow the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy, accelerate the fostering of a new pattern of development, and continue to ensure stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas. Customs will coordinate development and security, coordinate the pandemic prevention and control at ports and efforts to achieve a steady foreign trade growth, strengthen supervision and improve services, and continue to optimize the business environment at ports to better serve high-level openness and high-quality development. Customs will also do a good job in cross-cycle adjustment and promote the stable development of foreign trade to welcome the convening of the 20th CPC National Congress with excellent performance.
Now, I would like to take your questions.
