The Dezhou Economic Development Zone has become such an investment hotspot "that one project is established in every three days on average", said Meng Lingxing, deputy chief of the zone's administrative committee.

"New energy and bio-engineering are the focus of investment," he said.

In the first half of this year the zone's GDP totaled 6.5 billion yuan, up 15 percent over the same period of 2009.

Sixty-four industrial projects are now under construction in the zone at a combined pricetag of 20.2 billion yuan.

Another 47 deals with total contracted investment of 15.38 billion yuan were signed during the first half of the year. Some 102 projects with the total investment of 40 billion yuan were also discussed in the same period.

Newcomers to the zone include businesses in new energy cars, photovoltaic power station equipment and pharmaceuticals.

According to Meng, in 2008 the zone was already among the top 10 of Shandong's 145 provincial-level development zones.

The total number of business operations in the zone has reached 716 with a combined investment of 61.54 million yuan. About 500 are now operational with total completed investment of 45.63 billion yuan.

Among its core industries, new energy, biomedicine, machinery, electronics and modern services contributed 76.2 percent of the zone's GDP last year.

The zone's 12 billion yuan GDP last year was 183 times the figure of 1998 when the area was founded.

Meng said the zone will now "take two to three years to nurture five enterprises each with sales exceeding 10 billion yuan and 10 surpassing 5 billion yuan".

Three enterprises in the zone now have annual revenues over 3 billion yuan and 10 enterprises generate more than 1 billion yuan.

By Cui Xiaoqing