Harbin, the capital city of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, held a business promotion meeting in Shanghai on Nov 3, two days before the opening of the third China International Import Expo (CIIE).

The meeting was attended by representatives of nine foreign chambers of commerce in China, 54 Global Fortune 500 companies and Harbin government officials.

Harbin Mayor Sun Zhe delivered a speech at the meeting, saying that in recent years, Harbin has passionately participated in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China and Central and Eastern European countries’ (CEECs) "17+1” cooperation mechanism. 

Thanks to the country’s support for the Northeast China revitalization strategy and a series of preferential policies, Harbin shows vigor and healthy development momentum.

With Fortune 500 companies and multinational companies such as Nestle, Veolia, Case New Holland and IKEA settling in Harbin one after another, external investment in the city has continued to grow. 

Due to the 8.8 percent increase in the direct use of foreign capital in Harbin last year, Harbin achieved a 34.1 percent increase in foreign capital’s direct use from January to August this year.

In September, Harbin's fixed-asset investment growth rate reached 16.9 percent.

Harbin has become an increasingly popular destination for domestic and overseas enterprises to invest and start businesses.

Moving forward, Harbin will continue to improve its business environment and create investment and development opportunities in the sectors of green food processing, high-end equipment manufacturing, biomedicine production, cultural products and tourism, the digital economy, technological innovation and the service trade.