Chinese Port City Draws More Overseas Funds

QINGDAO, August 9 (Xinhua) -- The major port city of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province is attracting a growing amount of overseas funds as the local business environment improves.

Statistics show the city has approved more than 300 new overseas-funded projects this year, involving some 820 million US dollars of overseas investment, an increase of 6.7 percent and 87. 9 percent respectively, on a yearly basis.

Of these projects, each of 25 had an investment of more than 10 million US dollars.

The overseas capital has mostly been directed into the fields of machinery manufacturing, information technology, bio- engineering, chemicals, and infrastructure construction.

Overseas investment in the local agriculture and service sectors also grew significantly.
Nationwide, China registered a decline in overseas investments for the first half of this year, according to official figures.

The country approved a total of 8,052 new overseas-invested projects during the January-June period, with combined contractual overseas investment of 19.39 billion US dollars, down 16.71 percent and 19.87 percent respectively, from a year ago.