Yunnan province has made substantial progress in foreign economic cooperation, with surging indexes for direct investment, project contracts and labor cooperation with foreign countries in the first four months, said the foreign economic branch of the Yunnan International Chamber of Commerce on July 23.

In the first four months, Yunnan approved five companies to invest in overseas areas. Yunnan companies had made direct investments in 40 overseas businesses in 13 countries and regions, with a cumulative foreign direct investment of 154.521 million U.S. dollars, up 50.55 percent year on year. By the end of April, Yunnan had 309 companies making direct investment overseas. They had signed agreements to invest 10.072 billion U.S. dollars, and actually invested 1.482 billion U.S. dollars.

Along with the rapid increase in direct investment in overseas areas, Yunnan has accelerated contracting foreign projects. In the first four months, the province signed seven contracts for overseas contract projects, labor cooperation, and design consultations. The new contracts were valued at 580 million U.S. dollars, up 15.1 percent year on year. The business turnover amounted to 290 million U.S. dollars, up 11.6 percent.

Driven by overseas direct investment and contract projects, Yunnan has achieved new advances in labor service cooperation with overseas partners. In the first four months, the province sent out 3,286 laborers, up 123 persons over the same period of last year, an increase of 3.8 percent. So far, Yunnan has sent 59,787 laborers to overseas areas.