General Electric Co. 's (GE) gas turbine parts joint venture and wind power equipment assembly plant in Shenyang are making it clear that they will increase investment and expand capacity in 2009, even as multinational companies scale back investment in global markets in response to the economic downturn.

Not only GE, but also multinational companies such as Intel and ITT have set up or continued to increase their capital in Dalian and Shenyang of Northeast Liaoning province. Multinational companies are still enthusiastic about investing in this region amid the global financial turmoil.

According to the latest statistics from the Shenyang Branch of the People's Bank of China, the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang actually utilized US $17.58 billion of foreign investment last year, up 19.9 percent year on year, 14 percentage points higher than the national average and 22 percentage points higher than the Yangtze River Delta, which has long been a hot spot for foreign investment.

As the global financial turmoil has hit multinational companies almost without exception, investment in the northeast is still on the rise. Intel recently closed its Shanghai assembly test facility, but Intel's Dalian facility is proceeding as planned. "The Dalian facility is progressing well and should not be delayed," Intel said. "The Dalian plant is not just an investment for 2010, but a strategic investment for the long term," said Mr. KeBijie.

Itt, a global leader in the delivery, treatment and control of water, wastewater and other fluids, invested $25 million in 2007 to build a plant in Shenyang that produces submersible and sewage pumps. "Itt will continue to expand its shenyang facility and its investment will increase accordingly," said Dong Ruiping, vice president and director of external affairs at ITT (China) Investment Co., LTD.

As China's most famous old industrial base in Northeast China, equipment manufacturing industry has formed a relatively complete industrial system, with Liaoning as the core of the industrial cluster has a number of advantages and characteristics of aerospace, railway passenger cars, CNC machine tools and other industries. The revival of northeast China's economic vitality and the old industrial base provide foreign investment with rare industries, energy, human resources and other urgently needed resources.

Wen Yuezhong, president of GE Energy China, said, "Northeast China is a very important region for GE's future development, as it has relatively complete industrial manufacturing capacity such as equipment manufacturing and abundant energy supporting capacity such as coal power."　

Especially after the Chinese government implemented the policy of revitalizing the old industrial base in northeast China, foreign investment began to enter on a large scale, making northeast China's economy not only get rid of the situation of long-term sluggish operation, but also continuously seize the commanding heights of growth. Economic growth in the three northeastern provinces averaged 13.4% last year, faster than the national average and faster than the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta.

Heino Dannaman, chief executive of Wurth (China) Investment, who has been working in Shenyang for six years, has a busy schedule recently. "My main task is to bring European, American and Japanese companies to Wurth Shenyang Industrial Park." The sea said. In 2007, he was invited by Wurth Group to set up wurth Shenyang Industrial Park.　

Today, wurth Group has invested 40 million US dollars to complete the first phase of wurth Shenyang Industrial Park in Shenyang, a European Economic development zone. Arnold Fastener (Shenyang) Co., LTD., Wurth (Shenyang) Hardware Tools Co., LTD., and other 4 subordinate companies entered the industrial park.

Ge Energy cooperated with local enterprises in Harbin, Heilongjiang province in the technology and production of heavy gas turbine, which played a positive role in the localization of heavy gas turbine. Ge has invested $60 million in Shenyang, mainly in energy projects, Mr. Wen said.