With admirable geographical location and sound investment environment, Dalian, a coastal city of Liaoning Province and the largest port in northeast China has attracted an increasing number of foreign investors.

According to local government statistics, Dalian has approved 10,562 overseas-funded firms and has used 18.18 billion US dollars in foreign funds.

In the first half of the year, Dalian approved 492 foreign-financed ventures, involving contractual investment of 1.94 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 55.9 percent. The city used 1.49 billion US dollars in foreign funds in the first half of this year, 51.3 percent up over the same period of last year.

Currently, 72 of Fortune global top 500 corporations have invested in 125 firms in the city. The city is also home to five regional headquarters, 12 research and development centers and nine logistics centers set up by multinational corporations.

Eight foreign banks has launched branches in Dalian, six foreign banks set up representative offices and two foreign insurance agencies have also launched branches here. Recently, three more banks based in America and Europe applied to the China Banking Regulatory Commission to open branches in Dalian.

Foreign-financed firms have contributed significantly to local economic development. Last year, Dalian, registered a GDP of 196.18 billion yuan (24.19 billion US dollars), up 16.2 percent year on year. Half of the added GDP of 2.68 billion yuan (330.46 million US dollars) was contributed by foreign-funded enterprises.