(Photo/Guan Pengfei)

Lishui District in Nanjing City signed agreements with 18 European companies with a total investment of 13.4 billion yuan, including foreign direct investment of $820 million, during a promotion event in Shanghai on July 13.

The Nanjing-European Enterprises Innovation Cooperation Conference attracted over 200 people from the consulates, chambers of commerce and European companies to participate.

Seven of the newly agreed projects are in the field of smart manufacturing, and there are also 7 projects related to the development of airport economy.

Chic Group from Italy will invest $150 million for the China-Europe Industrial Park, which has a total investment of 3 billion yuan and will be a complex for technology exchange, industrial design, healthcare R&D and talent services. The park plans to introduce 50 European enterprises to settle in within a year.

Lishui is becoming a hot investment destination of European enterprises. It’s home to nearly 300 foreign-invested enterprises from more than 30 countries, and many of them are world’s industry leaders, such as ConMet, Siemens and A.O. Smith.

In the area of new energy vehicles, Lishui hosts 6 vehicle makers and more than 100 auto components manufactures, accounting for over 80% of Nanjing's new energy bus production capacity and more than 70% of components production capacity.