The 2017 Netherlands-China (Yantai) Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference was held in the eastern coastal city of Yantai on April 12. The two sides reached a preliminary intent to cooperate on 11 projects in agriculture, healthcare, horticulture and marine engineering.

Twenty-two Dutch companies and 34 Yantai enterprises took part in the conference, which included nine group sessions on healthcare, food processing, water resource management, yacht manufacturing, marine engineering and other industries.

According to the Yantai municipal bureau of commerce, the city has developed closer economic and trade ties with the Netherlands in recent years. The Netherlands has so far invested 27 projects in Yantai with a contract value totaling 715 million yuan ($104 million).

The import and export volume between the two sides amounted to 8.52 billion yuan in 2016. The figure reached 1.03 billion yuan in the first two months of this year, a 90.7 percent year-on-year rise over the same period.

"Yantai has a robust and competitive industrial base for port industry. Today some outstanding Dutch companies came that want to cooperate with local ones in this field," said Andre Driessen, deputy head of missions of the Netherlands Embassy to China.

"Future cooperation in fields of greenhouse plantation, seed production and sustainable development research will be highlighted in bilateral relations", said Driessen.

The Netherlands shares close economic and trade ties with Shandong, and is the province's third-largest trading partner in Europe. Currently about 60 Netherlands companies have investment in Shandong in such areas as machine manufacturing, chemicals and horticulture.

Andre said that Yantai and the Netherlands have many similarities in geographic location and economic structure. He hopes that the two sides will continue to maintain sound cooperation and jointly boost the growth of bilateral relations.

On-site investigations at local renowned companies were organized for the Dutch delegation after the conference.