The local government in Yantai, a coastal city in Shandong province, is hosting a trade and investment drive in Hong Kong from Sunday to Wednesday to seek further economic cooperation for development of a new economic zone for marine and high-tech industries on the east coast of the city.

"The Eastern High-tech and Marine Industrial Zone will be a new and strong growth driver for the city's economy," Meng Fanli, the city's mayor, told China Daily.

"With huge geographical and natural advantages, Yantai has enormous economic potential," Meng said. "Hong Kong is rich in capital, talent and high technology. We hope it can play a bigger role in the development of the zone."

The zone includes a bonded port area, a national high-tech industrial zone, an economic and technological development zone as well as the coastal areas of Laishan, Zhifu and Muping districts.

"With a total area of 600 square kilometers and a combined coastline that is 150-kilometers long coastline, the Eastern High-tech and Marine Industrial Zone includes the most economically dynamic areas of the city," said Yu Dong, head of Yantai Bureau of Commerce.

It is designed to integrate modern business, marine technology research and coastal tourism as well as a cluster of high-tech and environmental protection industries, such as marine equipment manufacturing, clean energy, bio-medicine, software and information technology.

A number of the world's top research institutions and universities have branches in the zone, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Yantai University and a Sino-Russian scientific and technological cooperation center.

The research and education institutions form a solid foundation that ensures promising growth among local businesses, said Yu.

Located in East China's Shandong Peninsula, Yantai bordered by Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea, faces Japan and South Korea, making it an ideal international transport hub.

And with a 909-kilometer-long coastline, the coastal city has rich ocean resources, "which give it obvious advantages to develop a marine economy," said Meng.

The city has established a competitive marine industrial system focused on aquaculture, fishing, marine equipment manufacturing, modern logistics and ocean energy and minerals.

The mayor said annual revenue from Yantai's marine sectors exceeded 200 billion yuan ($ 32.04 billion) in 2013, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent.

Investor attractor

The zone has become a new investment hotspot. More than 560 deals for projects, each worth at least 100 million yuan, have been signed with investors from more than 20 countries and regions.

The 55-square-kilometer bonded port area alone is home to almost 100 international brands from more than 30 countries and regions, including wines, dairy and healthcare products and electronic goods. Its foreign trade volume reached $15.7 billion last year, ranking first among the country's bonded trade zones.

Foxconn Group, a Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing giant, has a branch in the area. The plant produces more than 400 million games consoles annually, which accounts for 90 percent of the nation's total output and 70 percent of the world's.

Backed by more than 50 billion yuan in investment from the Longfor Group, an international conference center and a high-end real estate project are under construction along the east coast of the zone.

Other projects underway include the 6-billion-yuan Shandong International Biotechnology Park, and the 600-million-yuan marine engineering research institute by the China International Marine Containers Group and a cross-border e-commerce industrial park.

"When all the projects are put into operation in the next few years, the zone's GDP is expected to reach 30 billion yuan, making it a new business and administrative core for the city and a pilot for regional economic cooperation among China, Japan and South Korea," Yu predicted.