Total retail sales of consumer goods of North China's Shanxi province developed rapidly to reach 584.4 billion yuan ($88.8 billion)?in 2015, with services consumption and online consumption rising prominently, said a provincial commerce work conference held on Jan 15.

In cooperation with influential e-commerce operators, including Alibaba and JD.com, the province built its own competitive e-commerce platforms. The city of Datong was approved as a pilot city for synergetic development of e-commerce and logistics.

The province made great efforts to promote Shanxi brands last year, holding 29 promotional activities involving culture and business in 20 Chinese provincial cities, Hong Kong, Macao, Hungary, Kyrghyzstan, Russia, Italy, and Thailand.

It also promoted Shanxi's unique food abroad, opening the first Shanxi noodles restaurant in Los Angeles and launching a series of business events in hopes of widening the influence of Shanxi brands.

In addition, Shanxi had 175 investment projects in 2015, with investment capital amounting to 431.5 billion yuan. Foxconn, Gemeng, and Simens projects have supported industry, including equipment manufacturing and modern agriculture.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan, paid-in investment in Shanxi totaled 1780 billion yuan, three times that of the 11th Five-Year Plan period. About 30 domestic and 30 foreign enterprises from the Top 500 have invested in the province.

The 27 provincial economic and technological development zones across the province have formed the following six industrial clusters: equipment manufacturing, electronic information, biological medicine, new materials, food and agricultural product processing, and services.