Ruzhou City found a new way to boost its economic growth by introducing new projects and attracting more investment in recent years.

In the first half of this year, Ruzhou signed a series of major project contracts, attracting 2 billion yuan ($297.3 million) from outside of the city. All together, the city signed 35 project contracts with a total investment of 4 billion yuan ($594.7 million). The amount of contracted non-local investments was 3.5 billion yuan ($520.4 million) and paid-in foreign capital was $2.97 million, up by 11% and 12.5%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Since last year, Ruzhou has been sending delegations to a series of important economic and trade activities, such as the 4th Central China Investment and Trade Expo, the 13th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, and the 2009 Central Plains Economic Cooperation Forum of Overseas Chinese. In May, Ruzhou mayor Wanying and other officials went to the cities of the southeast coast, including Nanjing, Wenzhou, and Fujian, to promote its projects and invite merchants come to Ruzhou with capital.

With its abundant local resources, industrial chains, and commitment to recycling, Ruzhou has made energy and chemical engineering, mechanical manufacturing, metallurgy and building materials its pillar industries. Meanwhile, eight industrial zones, composed of companies in coal and electricity, concrete, founding, building materials, chemical engineering, transportation and services fields, have also been put into use.

The first half of this year witnessed the income of the Runan Industrial Zone, one of the eight industrial zones, amount to 2.87 billion yuan ($425.3 million) and profit taxes reach 129 million yuan ($19.1 million), providing jobs for about 18,000 workers, according to incomplete estimates. It’s estimated that the number of companies located in the industrial zones will rise to 85, with total assets of 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) by 2015, providing employment opportunities for 52,000 workers.