Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to promote the high-quality development of its open economy and build itself into a beacon of opening up in recent years, said local authorities.

The 600th Qilu China-Europe freight train of this year departs from Jinan, capital of Shandong province. [Photo/qlwb.com]

According to the latest statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, Shandong actually used $16.26 billion in foreign investment, up 50.9 percent year-on-year and 25.7 percentage points higher than the national average.

The province has been working to seize opportunities arising from the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement and explore new room for international cooperation.

Shandong, along with Japan and South Korea, has established a high-level cooperation mechanism at the provincial and ministerial levels and a regular consultation mechanism at the department level to develop "multimodal transport".

In the first three quarters of this year, among its major sources of foreign investment, Shandong saw the fastest growth in real investment from Japan and South Korea, with a year-on-year increase of 142 percent.

The Qilu China-Europe freight train runs to 52 cities and 22 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. A total of 4,091 China-Europe freight trains have departed from the province, greatly bolstering the growth of the city's foreign trade.