OVER the past five years, Qingdao has made significant achievements overseas.

    Statistics show that the city has built trading relationships with 210 countries and regions over the past five years and the total volume of imports and exports has reached US$228.8 billion, 2.3 times the volume from 2000 to 2005 and an increase of 11.5 percent annually.

    In the past five years, the city approved 4,450 foreign-funded projects with contracted foreign capital of US$15.4 billion, of which about US$13.3 billion has been used. Among these, 33 projects with total investment of US$1.37 billion came from 28 of the world’s Top 500 companies. The proportion of foreign-funded projects in high technology, advanced manufacturing and modern service industries increased 5 percentage points compared with period from 2000 to 2005.

    Meanwhile, the city has invested about US$920 million in overseas markets, four times more than that invested between 2000 and 2005. Turnover for overseas contracting projects has reached US$3.2 billion, 4.3 times more than the turnover made between 2000 and 2005.

    About 29,000 staff have been sent overseas for investments and projects in more than 60 countries and regions.

    The service outsourcing business accrued US$200 million in 2010. At present, there are 152 service outsourcing companies in the city. The city has cooperated with international companies including Microsoft, IBM and NEC in service outsourcing areas.

    At present, the city has relationships with 56 cities in 32 countries and regions, including 19 sister cities and 37 friendly cooperation cities. About 150 foreign delegations on average visit the city every year. More cooperation in trading, technology, culture, health, education, sports and tourism have been built among companies and non-government organizations.

    The number of overseas tourists visiting Qingdao has also increased steadily year by year. According to figures from the city’s tourism bureau, about 1.1 million foreign tourists came to Qingdao in 2010, 60 percent more than in 2005. Foreign exchange from tourism earnings in 2010 was about US$600 million, 44.6 percent more than in 2005. The number of Chinese tourists reached 43.32 million, 76.8 percent more than 2005, and income made from domestic tourism reached 54 billion yuan, 142.6 percent more than 2005. The city has established relationships with more than 40 tourism organizations in 12 countries and regions, including Germany, Britain, Japan and South Korea.(Wang Yuanyuan, Zhou Jianliang)