In the first half of the year, the growth rate of Northeast China's Jilin province's foreign investment in actual use ranked ninth in the country, local department of commerce officials said on Aug 9.

They said the growth rate of the province's foreign trade ranked 12th in the country.

During the period, the volume of Jilin province's foreign trade reached 62.2 billion yuan ($8.93 billion), a growth rate 0.6 percentage points higher than that of the whole country, ranking it 12th in the country by that measures and ranking it first among the three provinces in Northeast China.

In the first half of the year, foreign investment in actual use in the province totaled $393 million, an increase of 9.4 percent year-on-year.

Officials said Jilin has canvassed opinions on how to make further good use of foreign capital, strengthened services to relevant foreign-funded enterprises.

It has also sought guidance on how to promote the substantial progress made in the investment projects of transnational enterprises, to upgrade the structure of the auto industry and other sectors.

Officials said that in the first half of the year, retail sales were hard hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Jilin's commerce department reacted by putting together and issuing a series of stimulus policies and measures.

By organizing a series of shopping promotions, the consumer goods market in the province recovered steadily. By the end of June, retail sales in the province had reached 162.61 billion yuan, a growth rate of 7.3 percentage points higher than the first quarter.

In terms of new business formats, in the first half of the year, the province's online retail, rural online retail and cross-border e-commerce transactions increased by 17.4 percent, 19.6 percent and 34 percent, respectively -- higher than the national average.

Officials added that all kinds of new business formats and models related to e-commerce in Jilin are currently developing rapidly.

Officials said that in order to develop the new business model for the e-commerce industry, the province has put together and implemented a three-year plan for the development of livestreaming e-commerce.

In the first half of the year, more than 85,000 livestreaming sessions were broadcasted in the province, generating retail sales approaching 1.4 billion yuan, while more than 200,000 Jilin e-commerce merchants were active on major e-commerce platforms.