SAR is primary capital source for coastal region

Shandong province continues to enjoy such close business cooperation with Hong Kong that the island has become the province's largest source of overseas investment for four years running.

Statistics from the Shandong provincial department of commerce show that last year the province approved more than 500 Hong Kong-funded projects, representing $10.4 billion in contractual investment, a year-on-year increase of 41 percent. This amount accounts for 62.5 percent of the total actual use of foreign capital.

By the end of 2011, the number of Hong Kong-backed projects in Shandong had topped 16,000, accounting for 26 percent of the province's total projects funded by investors from overseas.