Shandong province in East China has been pulling out all the stops to better integrate into the new development pattern and build itself into a beacon of opening-up.

In the first half of this year, the scale and quality of foreign investment utilization were both improved in the province, according to local authorities.

Yantai Port in Shandong province [Photo/IC]

Foreign investment in Shandong's manufacturing sector is of particular note. From January to June, the actual use of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector totaled $2.83 billion, up 119.7 percent year-on-year and accounting for 25.2 percent of the province’s total, 5.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Its actual use of foreign capital in the manufacture of special equipment, chemical products, general equipment, and electronic and communications equipment have all more than doubled, and the structure of foreign capital utilization has been further improved.

In the Yantai Penglai Economic Development Zone, the construction of the Air Liquide manufacturing base with a total investment of $61.2 million is currently underway.

Air Liquide is the world's leading supplier of industrial and medical gases, and in 2019, the company needed to locate a new manufacturing site.

Yantai invited the company to visit Penglai, and introduced local marine equipment manufacturing resources and port advantages to them, providing more than 500 pages of detailed information on transportation, meteorology, geology, and industrial supporting facilities within just 24 hours.

The government also negotiated with local vocational schools to train high-quality workers for the project, which helped solve the labor shortage facing the project.

After more than a dozen investigations and negotiations, Air Liquide and Penglai finally reached a cooperation agreement.

"Shandong's business environment is very advantageous. We can have efficient and transparent communication with the government, which is conducive to solving problems. Next, we will continue to invest in the Penglai project and further expand our business into the hydrogen energy field," said Nicolas Poirot, Air Liquide China President and CEO.