Baotou attracted a total of 687 investment projects with paid-in investment reaching 76.27 billion yuan ($11.10 billion) in 2016, ranking first in the autonomous region, according to statistics released by the Statistics Bureau and the Development and Reform Commission of Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The paid-in investment made up 20.37 percent of the autonomous region total, year-on-year growth of 15.7 percent.

The largest city of North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region won 170 contracts for projects that are worth more than 100 million yuan in 2016. Some 125 billion yuan is to be put into these new projects.

A total of 12 investment promotion meetings and 26 related activities organized by the investment promotion bureau of Baotou have been organized in major domestic cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, to further cooperation and attract investment to Baotou city.

Also, to strengthen ties with foreign companies, Baotou played an active role in international-level trade conferences and signed major contracts with companies in countries including New Zealand, Mongolia and Russia.

The city has confirmed 118 key projects to attract investment this year. The projects cover a range of areas including deep processing of rare earth materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy automobiles and big data.