East China's Shandong reported 75.04 billion yuan (about 9 billion US dollars) of investment in its large-scale fixed assets in the first quarter of 2004, a stunning increase over the same period of last year, reveal latest statistics.

The province's investment in large-scale fixed assets was 73.1 percent higher compared with the same January-March period in 2003,according to the statistics of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

Most of the investment in large-scale fixed assets projects went to the province's urban areas which attracted a total of 53.42 billion yuan (about 6.4 billion US dollars), 62.5 percent up year on year, according to the bureau.

Other investment categories also posted a surprise increase in Shandong, one of China's economic powers, with the investment in agriculture, manufacturing and construction, services industry soaring 92.1 percent, 86.1 percent and 49.3 percent respectively.

The province's industries like coal, metallurgy, chemical, machinery and textile all maintained their attraction to investorsin first quarter, with investment in such fields skyrocketing 67.8 percent, 380 percent, 97.3 percent, 130 percent and 110 percent respectively, reveal statistics.

Investment in banking and financing, commercial services environment and public facilities all posed three-digit increase during the first three months in Shandong.

Source: Xinhua