The fourth Qingdao Multinationals Summit, held last week in Qingdao city of Shandong province, showcased China's latest achievements in economic development and injected strong momentum into the market.

In living up to its theme of "Multinationals and China", the summit, jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Shandong province, built a channel for high-quality two-way investment and achieved fruitful results by bringing together political figures, top officials from international organizations and leaders from 422 multinationals in 36 countries and regions.

In his address during the opening ceremony, Lin Wu, Party secretary of Shandong, said: "We will facilitate trade, optimize services and continue to create an internationalized, market-oriented and rule of law-based business environment for multinationals."

The summit hosted 30 events in 14 categories, signing a record 194 foreign investment projects worth about $20.6 billion. Investors came from more than 20 countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea, the United States and Germany.

Geng Tao, mayor of Qingdao, said the event provided a vital platform for multinationals to invest in China and bolstered deep communication and cooperation between Qingdao and multinationals' leaders. He said Qingdao has set a model for the country's open cooperation, adding: "To ensure high-quality service we established a joint meeting office and 10 working teams, developed personalized reception plans for heavyweight guests and designed inspection routes meticulously. We hope our services left a wonderful impression and demonstrated the openness and investment attraction of Shandong."

Dialogue between Qingdao and International City Partners, a significant event during the summit, invited leaders from numerous multinationals such as the United Kingdom's Astra-Zeneca, South Korea's CJ Group and Germany's ZF Friedrichshafen, as well as renowned experts and scholars, to share views on common development and reach multiple consensus. Key projects, including those invested by Fortune Global 500 companies such as Trafigura Group, COFCO Group and HBIS Group with a total investment of $3.45 billion, were signed.

"By establishing a comprehensive docking mechanism before, during and after the summit, our aim is to deepen practical cooperation," Geng said, adding that in the next step Qingdao will further optimize services and safeguard the smooth and effective implementation of signed projects. The city will also enhance regular exchanges through promotion events, negotiation meetings and investment attraction activities while making full use of favorable policies such as the Action Plan for Attracting Manufacturing Multinational Corporations and the Global Investment Attraction Action Plan.

In addition, Qingdao will create a fertile ground and business-friendly environment based on the market, rule of law and internationalization to boost its overall development of multinationals, Geng added.

The fourth Qingdao Multinationals Summit is held in the city from Oct 10 to 12. CHINA DAILY