THANKS to the city’s efforts, the development environment has improved significantly in recent years. At the end of 2010, there were 458,000 enterprises in the city, 83,000 more than in 2009, increasing by 22.13 percent. Registered capital was 571.77 billion yuan, increasing by 111.32 billion yuan, or 24.17 percent more than in 2009.

    At the end of 2010, there were 527 projects, each with more than US$10 million invested by foreign-owned enterprises in Qingdao. Walmart, Mitsubishi and Itochu registered in the city last year, bringing the total number of the world’s top 500 enterprises in the city to 188. By 2010, there were 10,239 foreign-owned companies with registered capital of US$23.44 billion, an increase of 11.28 percent from 2009. (Wang Yuanyuan, Wang Yu)