Fixed-asset investment by both government and individual Chinese and foreign investors, in Shandong province, has grown over the past four years, providing a solid foundation for economic development.

It covers just about everything, from agriculture and home appliances, to services and technology, to automobiles and shipping.

In that time, it has grown by 20 percent annually and is expected to reach 8 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion) by the end of this year. That is 2.8 times the figure under the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) and one-tenth of the nation's total.

Investment in technological development has maintained steady growth, with an annual increase of 22.9 percent, to 2.6 trillion yuan for the period.

The province has seen, 37,000 technical innovation projects, increasing sales by 4.5 trillion yuan.

Investment in the high-tech sector totaled 599 billion yuan over the last five-year period, with an average annual increase of 53.2 percent. In the machine and equipment-manufacturing sector, it reached 800 billion yuan, up 42.7 percent annually.

Spending on industrial upgrades improves company competitiveness and provides steady economic development.

Shandong has created some industrial clusters in the automobile, shipping, chemicals, electronics and home appliances sectors.

From 2006 to 2010, more than 800 billion yuan was spent on infrastructure improvements on highways and railways enabling the highway traffic mileage to total 4,285 kilometers, up 35 percent, and there are 3,024 kilometers of railways under construction.

In the first 10 months of 2010, fixed-asset investment in transportation totaled 37.7 billion yuan, a 12-percent increase from the same period of last year.

This has improved traffic conditions in the province, and has put Shandong among the provinces with the largest number of highways in China.

Improving the Yellow River Delta's eco-economy has helped investment in the region. Niu Qizhong, deputy director of the Shandong Development and Reform Commission, said, "In the first nine months of this year, fixed-asset investment in this region reached 249.7 billion yuan, an increase of 25.2 percent.

"And import and export value increased by 63 percent, to 13.2 billion yuan," Niu added.

Work on 100 new projects in emerging industries is under way in the Yellow River Delta, with spending of more than 60 billion yuan.

Investment in agriculture amounts to 250 billion yuan, an average annual increase of 30 percent. It is going mainly to water conservation, grain bases, agricultural products exports, breeding, and fruit and vegetable bases to make Shandong more competitive.

One eco-agriculture project with 20 billion yuan in backing is under construction.

Investment in the services sector has also increased during the five-year period to 3.5 trillion yuan, up 29.5 percent annually.

Areas like finance, insurance, logistics, cultural travel and real estate are developing rapidly.

Foreign investment has played an important role in the service business. By making use of foreign capital, Shandong's services sector developed continually from January to October of 2010.

More than 400 service projects have been approved, backed by 3 billion yuan in foreign capital. Of that, 900 million yuan is for real estate.

By Cui Xiaoqing (China Daily)

(China Daily 12/21/2010 page6)