Tai'an, East China's Shandong province, is stepping efforts to attract investment in key projects and has seen impressive results despite the impact of the ongoing pandemic.

Cui Honggang, Party secretary of Tai'an and deputy to the third session of the 13 National People's Congress, discussed the city’s efforts to attract investment during an interview.

A series of online investment promotion conferences have been held by the local government, with deals for 63 projects costing 71.3 billion yuan ($10.01 billion) being signed, 22 of which are foreign-funded projects. Utilized foreign capital was valued at $6.2 billion.

The city is also stepping up infrastructure construction. Several key urban construction projects costing a total of 3.74 billion yuan are planned for this year. They involve road construction, river management, and improving sewage treatment systems. Investment in infrastructure construction rose 44.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020.

In addition, more efforts have been made to promote the integration of the cultural and tourism industries and speed up construction on a series of tourism projects, including a project involving artistic performances costing 5 billion yuan, as well as a Jiunv Mountain project costing 1 billion yuan.

Nine projects, which have been included in the first batch of major provincial rural revitalization projects, are aimed at boosting the development of local modern agriculture.