Ningbo's actual use of foreign investment expands 4.4 percent year-on-year to $2.467 billion yuan in 2020. [Photo/IC]

Ningbo's actual use of foreign investment expanded 4.4 percent year-on-year to $2.467 billion yuan in 2020.

Four Fortune Global 500 companies established a business presence in Ningbo last year, bringing the total number of overseas Fortune Global 500 in the city to 67, official data from the Ningbo municipal bureau of commerce show. 

Their combined investment value amounted to $21.44 billion, nearly half of the city's fiscal revenue in 2020.

The four newcomers are Daimler, Fresenius, Walmart and China Resources Group, while six another Fortune Global 500 companies, including US biopharmaceutical company MSD, French energy giant Engie and German industrial gases specialist Messer Group, increased their investment in Ningbo.

In 2020, the actual foreign investment from Germany registered a 132-fold increase while the figure for the United States and Singapore were 519.3 percent and 69.7 percent respectively.

The investment from countries involved in Belt and Road Initiative amounted to $1.31 billion, accounting for 5.3 percent of the city's total, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the 15 Asia-Pacific nations that signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement made an investment of $172 million in Ningbo, up 48.3 percent.

The city's increasing attractiveness for foreign capital are down to a number of factors including law-based rules, transparent government procurement and optimized government services, experts noted.