Agreements for 96 foreign-funded projects are signed at the second Qingdao Multinationals Summit held in Qingdao, Shandong province, on July 16. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Agreements for 96 foreign-funded projects were signed at the second Qingdao Multinationals Summit held in Qingdao, Shandong province, on July 16. 

The projects costing $11.85 billion involve high-end equipment manufacturing, new generation of information technology, new materials, healthcare, advanced agriculture, cultural creativity, modern marine and other industries. 

The summit, hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Shandong Provincial People's Government, welcomed 390 world's top 500 companies and 517 industry leading companies. 

Multinational corporations have been playing an active role in Shandong's opening up and development, said Wang Shujian, vice-governor of Shandong, at the signing ceremony. 

Shandong is making efforts to improve its business environment, promote cross-border trade, and build trade cooperation zones to push forward its opening up, said Wang.

In 2020, in spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 31 world's top 500 companies launched businesses in the province. The actual use of foreign capital in Shandong exceeded $17 billion.

Shandong has good port resources, complete industrial chains, wide market, professional talents and service team, said Chen Jiayuan, chief executive officer of North Asia of Louis Dreyfus.

In recent years, Shandong has attached great importance to attracting investment, and issued a series of supporting policies, such as incentives for headquarters to promote the high-quality development of enterprises in the province.