The actual use of foreign investment in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province reaches $266 million yuan in April. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn] 

The actual use of foreign investment in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, reached $266 million yuan in April, according to data from the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

This is a yearly uptick of 45.6 percent, 37 percentage points faster than the national average that month.

From January to April, the actual utilization of foreign capital in the city reached $1.126 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 percent, 9.9 percentage points higher than the national average.

This is mostly due to large investments from several multinational enterprises such as Daimler, Fresenius, and Walmart. 

In January, Daimler AG invested $2.21 billion in Ningbo to develop and produce electric vehicles under the German carmaker's "smart" brand for global markets. 

To date, 66 foreign Fortune 500 enterprises have set up operations in Ningbo, and Ningbo's attractiveness to foreign investors is increasing. 

Statistics show that, in the first four months, a total of 153 foreign-invested enterprises were established in the city, 57 less than the same period last year. Nevertheless, the value of contractual foreign investment reached $1.284 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29.8 percent.  

The majority of investment from overseas went to the manufacturing sector amid the city's pursuit of industrial transformation and upgrading. 

The actual use of foreign investment in the city's manufacturing sector over the January-to-April period amounted to $523 million, accounting for 46.6 percent of all foreign investment in actual use. 

Most investment came from the US, Singapore, Japan, Italy, and Belt and Road countries.

The actual use of foreign capital from the US and Italy increased by a factor of 2.26 and 3.48, respectively.