East China's Shandong province sees steady growth in attracting foreign investment in January. [Photo/zhonghongwang.com]

East China's Shandong province sees steady growth in attracting foreign investment in January, according to statistics from the Department of Commerce of Shandong Province.

Statistics show that Shandong registered 166 newly established foreign investment companies, an increase of 9.9 percent, attracting $2.18 billion in contractual foreign investment, an increase of 9.4 percent, and $930 million in actual foreign investment, an increase of 9.2 percent.

The service industry registered 121 new enterprises, an increase of 30.1 percent, attracting $690 million dollars in actual foreign investment, an increase of 65.5 percent, accounting for 74.2 percent of the province's total. Among them, the scientific research and technical services industry gained $110 million in actual foreign investment, up 3.8 times compared to the previous year.

Five cities in Shandong including Jinan, Weifang, Tai'an, Weihai and Rizhao witnessed growth in both the contractual foreign investment and actual foreign investment. Especially, the actual foreign investment of Jinan city increased by 27.6 percent to $170 million, accounting for 18.1 percent of the province's total.

Five Fortune 500 companies invested in six projects in Shandong province, attracting $100 million in the contractual foreign investment.

Forty-five companies increased their contractual foreign investment by $440 million, an increase of 14.8 percent.