On September 22nd, the ASEAN special session of “Connecting Shandong with Fortune Global 500” was held in Jinan, capital of Shandong province. Ten key foreign investment projects covering medical and health care, equipment manufacturing, modern service industry and other industries were signed online. With a total investment of 1.01 billion U.S. dollars and a contractual foreign investment of 115 million U.S. dollars, the projects are located in 9 cities of Shandong province, namely Qingdao, Zibo, Zaozhuang, Dongying, Yantai, Weifang, Jining, Tai’an and Heze.

Liu Jiayi, Secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee, attended the event and communicated with the guests online. Li Ganjie, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee and Governor oF Shandong Province, delivered a speech.

“In light of the province’s strong development potential, thriving business environment, and abundant agricultural resources, Wilmar has decided to continue increasing investment in Shandong,” said Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and CEO of Wilmar International, which is one of the ASEAN multinational companies that invested the most in Shandong.

Headquartered in Singapore, Wilmar International is one of Asia’s leading agribusiness groups, alongside COFCO Group. It is engaged in the processing, merchandising, and distribution of agricultural products. It ranked third in Fortune’s 2019 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies.

According to Kuok, Shandong has a large population, vast production area for grain and oil raw materials, and a huge consumer base. The province’s promising prospects in the grain and oil industry are what attracted Wilmar to invest in Shandong.

“Wilmar International will expand its investment in Shandong and build innovative projects to meet the diverse and personalized demands of consumers for nutritious and healthy food,” he said, adding that the company will continue to contribute to the high-quality economic development of Shandong.