Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in southwest China, actually utilized $12.03 billion of foreign capital last year, ranking first among the country's sub-provincial cities, according to the statistics of the National Economic and Social Statistics Bulletin of 15 sub-provincial cities in 2018.

Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, which ranked second among the sub-provincial cities, utilized $10.93 billion of foreign capital in 2018, while Changchun, capital of Jilin province in northeast China, utilized $330 million of foreign capital last year, ranking at the bottom.

The statistics also show that the actual use of foreign capital in Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Nanjing, Harbin, Jinan, and Xiamen saw continuous growth from 2010 to 2018.

The statistics of the actual use of foreign capital by China's 15 sub-provincial cities from 2010-2018.

As one of China's new first-tier cities, Chengdu has won the favor of many foreign companies in recent years. Official figures show that the city currently has 8,155 foreign-invested enterprises. Among the 285 Fortune 500 enterprises in Chengdu, 198 are foreign-invested.

Foreign direct investment in Chengdu last year was $2.69 billion, an increase of 44.1 percent year-on-year.

On April 12, a total of 22 foreign-invested projects worth $3.39 billion were signed in Chengdu. The investors include many worldwide industry leader companies such as French multinational AREP, Happyeasygo Group from Singapore, and Baxter International from the United States.

The GDP of Chengdu grew 8 percent and surpassed 1.53 trillion yuan ($228.25 billion) last year. Chengdu rose to the 71st place in terms of city comprehensive competitiveness among world cities in 2018, as ranked by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

(CHINA DAILY)