Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province, signed a total of 25 projects with a combined investment of 34.6 billion yuan ($5.08 billion) at a signing ceremony held in the city on Aug 16.

Among them, six are foreign-invested projects valued at $189 million, which are related to Yantai's key industrial chains such as new energy, automobile manufacturing, biomedicine, petrochemicals, and new chemical materials.

"Yantai Huang-Bohai New Area boasts a sound business environment and provides thoughtful public services, and offers a platform for Henkel Lotite to achieve success in Yantai," said Rajat Agarwal, president of Henkel China, a German chemical and consumer goods manufacturer.

"The reason why we chose Yantai as our investment destination is probably because the city boasts a better business environment. There are also a great number of leading backbone enterprises involved in the consumer electronics industry," said Huang Jiafeng, president of Hong Kong KYT Industry Limited.

It is Yantai's continuously improving business environment that has attracted batches of high-quality foreign companies to start businesses in the city.

According to official data, Yantai's actual use of foreign capital reached $1.67 billion so far this year, an increase of 32.8 percent year-on-year, maintaining a high-speed growth of more than 30 percent for three consecutive months, 11 percentage points higher than the national average level. A total of 461 projects have settled in Yantai this year, including 180 projects each with a combined investment of 1 billion yuan.

The coastal city of Yantai in East China's Shandong province is an important hub in the Bohai Economic Rim area, one of China's largest economic circles. [Photo/WeChat account: zsyttv]