A worker at the construction site of a flyover in Hami, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. CAI ZENGLE / FOR CHINA DAILY

East China's Shandong province has invested more than 5 trillion yuan ($728.63 billion) in fixed asset last year, ranking first among Chinese provinces, China Business News reported citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

In 2016, Shandong's fixed-asset investment rose 10.5 percent to 5.23 trillion yuan, becoming the only province whose investment volume exceeded the 5 trillion yuan mark.

Among them, fixed-asset investment in the industrial sector accounted for 50 percent. According to data from the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, the province's industrial investment reached 2.63 trillion yuan in 2016, up 13.6 percent from a year earlier.

East China's Jiangsu province, with a fixed-asset investment of 4.94 trillion yuan, ranked second, followed by Henan province (3.98 trillion yuan) and Guangdong province (3.29 trillion yuan).

In terms of growth rate, China's fixed-asset investment grew 8.1 percent in 2016, down from 10 percent in 2015 and 15.7 percent in 2014, official data showed.

China's fixed-asset investment growth showed imbalance last year with the underdeveloped western region posting higher growth rate than the well-developed eastern regions, the newspaper said.

A total of 19 provincial regions posted their fixed-asset growth rates well above 10 percent, with the central and western regions leading the growth. The top three were Tibet autonomous region, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces.

Fixed-asset investment includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery and other physical assets.

Some provinces previously unveiled their investment plans for the new year. Both eastern provinces and central and western regions have put infrastructure investment, especially in the transportation sector, in an important position.