Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, has seen stable growth in foreign trade and investment over the first six months of 2020, Xiamen Daily reported.

The city's actual use of foreign capital was 10.39 billion yuan ($1.51 billion) in the first half of this year, accounting for 48.7 percent of the total in Fujian. Both the overall amount and growth rate ranked first among cities in the province.

"Faced with the COVID-19 outbreak, we should make even more efforts to improve the business environment and boast foreign investors' confidence in Xiamen's development," said a spokesperson for the city's commerce bureau.

Since the beginning of this year, the commerce bureau has improved its services to help local companies resume operations, and has taken advantage of websites, WeChat accounts, and hotlines to attract investment.

Statistics showed that deals for 29 foreign-funded projects were signed in Xiamen from January to June, with a planned investment of over 32.8 billion yuan.

Over the first six months, Xiamen's imports and exports also saw stable growth at 3.9 percent, reaching a total value of 308.18 billion yuan.

Imports of metal ore, agricultural products, and coal increased 45.8 percent, 40.1 percent, and 48.6 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the city's trade with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative rose 5.1 percent to 97.78 billion yuan, accounting for 31.7 percent of the city's total foreign trade.