(Yicai Global) Jan. 19 -- Several Chinese cities, including Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Ningbo, are increasing their efforts to prompt foreign companies to set up factories in China.

Zhejiang province's Hangzhou strives to gain no less than CNY80 billion (USD11.8 billion) by organizing at least 30 major events and sending 30 groups abroad to attract investments, Yicai Global learned recently during a campaign launch ceremony.

For Suzhou, going abroad to lure investments is a norm, an official at the local commerce bureau said to Yicai Global yesterday. In December, the team that participated in charter flights arranged by the regional government to France and Germany gained USD5.9 billion in investment intentions while the team that went to Japan came back with preliminary agreements of USD1.8 billion.

Employees of the commerce bureau of Changxing county in Jiangsu province will join hands with the commerce department of Zhejiang province to fly to Europe on Feb. 2 to visit new and existing clients and gain insights into market conditions, mostly targeting Germany, said Wu Jun, deputy director general of the bureau in Changxing. The plan is to set up offices in Europe to promote investments in China and the trip is expected to yield inflows of around USD100 million, Wu predicted.

Changxing intends to deepen its appeal based on intermediaries while exploring the use of funds to develop its manufacturing industry while advancing integration between domestic and foreign players through restructuring, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

"We will prioritize Europe over Japan and South Korea this year," according to an official at Ningbo's investment promotion agency, set up in September 2022. The factory hub will mainly focus on manufacturing services and the emerging fields of advanced manufacturing.

Going abroad can help China to advance projects quicker and seek new opportunities as executives of foreign companies may have incomplete and inaccurate ideas about the situation in China as they have not been able to meet and talk with Chinese business leaders for three years, the above-mentioned official said.

In 2022, the use of overseas capital in China increased by 8 percent to USD189.1 billion from 2021, the commerce ministry announced yesterday. Several regions boosted their investments as the increase of the EU was 92.2 percent, that of the participants of the Belt and Road Initiative tallied 17.2 percent, and that of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was 8.2 percent.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi