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Jiaxing introduces 344 foreign-invested projects and its actual use of foreign capital totaled $2.65 billion in 2020. [Photo/cnjxol.com]

Pinghu and Jiashan, two county-level cities in Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang province, were recently shortlisted for the provincial top 10 in terms of actual use of foreign capital, Jiaxing Daily reported on March 17.

Statistics show that in 2020, Jiaxing introduced 344 foreign-invested projects and its actual use of foreign capital totaled $2.65 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.4 percent and ranking second in Zhejiang.

Among the 344 projects, 21 are invested by Global Fortune 500 companies and 59 have received more than $100 million in investment, the largest number in Zhejiang.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Jiaxing launched 1,533 foreign-invested projects and its actual use of foreign capital was $10.3 billion, a 32.6 percent increase over the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15).

The proportion of Jiaxing's actual use of foreign capital in the provincial total improved from 14.2 percent in 2015 to 16.8 percent in 2020

Foreign capital has been playing an increasing role in Jiaxing's economy. As of the end of 2020, the city was home to 1,042 foreign-invested companies above designated size, accounting for 15.8 percent of all companies above designated size and generating 26.6 percent of the total operating revenue of these companies.

Four years ago, German ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Chinese Beiqi Foton Motor Co jointly developed ZF Foton Automatic Gearbox in Jiaxing. In 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the joint venture's industrial output surged 462 percent year-on-year to 2.93 billion yuan ($450.99 million) and its operating revenue soared 468 percent year-on-year to 3.03 billion yuan.

The German company therefore decided to invest 1.36 billion yuan in the construction of a solely-owned commercial vehicle headquarters in Jiaxing last year.