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Border trade has boosted Tibet's economic growth, accounting for more than half of the autonomous region's foreign trade from January to September, the Tibetan Bureau of Commerce announced on Wednesday.

The gross foreign trade volume of Tibet amounted to 200.5 million U.S. dollars during the first three quarters of this year, up 49 percent on last year.

Border trade alone reached 110.3 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 55 percent of the total foreign trade, said the bureau statistics. The majority of the border trade is conducted with Nepal.

The Renqinggang trade market located in Yadong on the Sino-Indian border, in addition to the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, has boosted Tibetan foreign trade, the bureau said.

In fact, trade at the newly opened border crossing between China and India had a minimal impact on Tibet's border trade, only totaling 1.49 million yuan (186,250 U.S. dollars) between July 6 and Sept.30. The market is now closed for the winter.

Insiders said the border trade boom is closely related to the rapid development in Tibet and a better relationship between China and the neighboring nations.

Yet others believe the small scale of the trade, the simple marketing structure and the poor industrial infrastructure are major obstacles to Tibet's foreign trade growth.