File photo taken from Xiangshan Mountain shows the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

TAIPEI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan companies received export orders from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong worth a total of 14.09 billion U.S. dollars in January, up 61.8 percent year on year, the island's economic affairs department said on Wednesday.

The growth was the highest among the island's main export markets that also include the United States, Japan, Europe and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the department said in a press release.

Orders for electronic products showed the greatest increase, growing 85.4 percent year on year in January, followed by orders for optical components at 63.7 percent, the statement read.

Taiwan companies saw their total export orders increase 49.3 percent year on year to 52.72 billion U.S. dollars in January.

Orders for electronic goods, IT products and optical components were top among various export commodities, according to the statement.

The department attributed the increase in export orders to the continuing demand for long-distance communication products and new IT technologies such as 5G.

The year-on-year growth was greater than usual also because last year's Spring Festival holiday fell in January, meaning fewer working days and slow business caused the figure for January 2020 to be relatively low, the statement read.

The department expects a favorable performance of export orders for high-tech products in the near future, based on the strong demand for and the competitive edge of the island's semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Orders for Taiwan's commonly exported products may also recover as the global economy rebounds due to the expanding use of COVID-19 vaccines, the statement noted.