The coastal city of Yantai in Shandong province is seeking further business ties with Hong Kong, one of its most important trading partners, according to a senior local official.

Located on the south bank of Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea, Yantai is part of two national strategies for regional development — the Yellow River Delta High-Efficiency and Ecological Zone and the Marine Economic Zone on the Shandong Peninsula.

Statistics from the Yantai Commerce Bureau show that the city had approved a total of 3,310 Hong Kong-funded projects by the first quarter of this year. They brought $17 billion in contractual investment and $7.03 billion in actually utilized capital, making Hong Kong the largest overseas investor in the city.

In the first quarter alone, the utilized capital from Hong Kong was $190 million, which is nearly seven times the amount seen in the same period last year and accounted for 67.4 percent of the city's total.

There is also growing cooperation in modern services and emerging sectors, such as clean energy, electronic information, international logistics, finance, trade, real estate and coastal tourism.

Attracted by the city's favorable business environment, an increasing number of Hong Kong's leading companies have actively expanded their business and built branches to handle their investments in Yantai. They include China Resources, Shimao Group, Wing Lung Bank, as well as HSBC.

Trade with Hong Kong has also grown rapidly, topping $1 billion last year, an increase of 25 percent over 2011. Yantai exported goods to Hong Kong worth $870 million in 2012.

Imports and exports stretched across a wide range of sectors, including jewelry, textiles, garments, electrical products, machinery, plastic raw materials and leather goods.

The city?is home to a State-level high-tech industrial park, a bonded port zone, as well as economic and technological development areas for advanced industries.