Containers are unloaded at Qingdao Port in Shandong province in March. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily]

Since the beginning of this year, in the face of a challenging and complicated international investment environment, Shandong has launched a slew of supportive policies to further incentivize foreign companies to expand their operations in the province, local officials said this week.

Efforts have been made to promote Shandong's high-quality opening-up, optimize the attraction and utilization of foreign investment, and establish a business environment that is market-driven, legally structured, and globally integrated.

According to statistics provided by the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, from January to July there were 1,341 new foreign-invested enterprises registered in Shandong, an increase of 4.8 percent year-on-year.

During this period, the actual use of foreign capital reached 89.44 billion yuan ($12.28 billion). The actual use of foreign capital in the manufacturing industry was $4.77 billion, accounting for 37.4 percent of the total in Shandong, Meanwhile, the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries was $3.91 billion, up 74.1 percent year-on-year.

Aimed at improving the environment for foreign investment and attracting more global capital, the Shandong provincial people's government issued 14 measures on July 11, which covered areas such as ensuring the effective utilization of foreign investment and guaranteeing the equal treatment of foreign-invested and domestic enterprises.

"Shandong has become one of our most important investment areas, with $460 million invested in the province from January to July this year. In the next step, we will continue to increase our industrial output in Shandong and land more projects there," said a senior manager from the China State Construction International Investments.

"Shandong's broad market opportunities, complete industrial system and high-quality business environment are the main driving forces for us to continue to increase our investment, while the deferred tax policy has saved a large amount of money for enterprises like ours, and greatly enhanced our investment confidence in the area," said an official from Singapore's Royal Golden Eagle Group (RGE).

Asia Symbol, a world-leading producer of pulp and paper under RGE, will invest 15 billion yuan in Rizhao. This marked RGE's 27th capital increase in Rizhao since it restructured Asia Symbol in 2005.

Over the past 18 years, RGE has constructed China's largest wood pulp production base in Rizhao. It has an accumulative investment of 30 billion yuan.