The eastern coastal city of Qingdao stepped up efforts to attract private investment last year, signing 191 deals with a total contractual investment of 217.44 billion yuan ($34.79 billion), Qingdao Daily reported, citing data from the Qingdao domestic economic cooperation office.

Among the deals, 15 projects were in the 3 billion to 10 billion yuan group, with investments totaling nearly 80 billion yuan, and five in the 10 billion yuan or above group, with total investments hitting 71.3 billion yuan.

These projects will increase the proportion of Qingdao's private economy and drive its industrial transformation and upgrading, thus becoming a new booster for investment growth and an emerging force in pushing the city’s economic and social development.

Modern services industries took up the greatest proportion of these deals, with 76 projects and 123.87 billion yuan to be invested. High-end manufacturing secured 61 deals, with 61.4 billion yuan to be invested, and 26 deals were in strategic emerging industries, with a total investment of 14.69 billion yuan.