Authorities have approved 116 major investment projects - with a total investment of 90.4 billion yuan ($12.8 billion) - online, at a ‘cloud contract signing’ event held yesterday in Tianjin.

116 entrepreneurs from home and abroad joined in online discussions during the event and decided to join hands with Tianjin on new projects in areas such as intelligent manufacturing technologies, pharmaceuticals, new energy, materials and finance.

Companies from the 12 countries and regions, including the US, the UK and the Netherlands, signed 28 projects with investment totaling $2.16 billion, in a display of their confidence in the development of high-end equipment, biomedicine, financial services and education in Tianjin.

“We settled on Tianjin for our second factory after an extensive investigation in 2018. Tianjin is a transportation hub, boasts convenient aviation and seaport services, and is close to Beijing where the BAIC Motor Corporation is located," said Ramon Jose Blanch Subirats,, the Chinese general manager of Emdep Group, a worldwide supplier for assembly testing equipment founded in Barcelona, Spain in 1983.

“The local government has cut our rent and provided with us with a lot of other support, which meant a lot for our factory during the virus outbreak, and boosted our confidence in developing in the city,” he added.

Regional clusters, including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province and the Pearl River Delta, are major sources of domestic investment.

"Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the city has put its energy into controlling and preventing the spread of the virus and helping companies to resume production," said Jin Xiangjun, vice-mayor of Tianjin.

The approval of the projects is one of the efforts Tianjin has made to boost economic and social development, among some 50 other favorable policies and measures issued to cushion the effects of the virus outbreak.