European and American enterprises in the city of Taicang, Jiangsu province, have maintained a steady economic growth amid a gloomy global market, Taicang Daily reported on May 27.

As of 2014, there were more than 300 European and American enterprises in Taicang, totaling $ 3 billion in investments. During the first four months of this year, the output value of 104 foreign-funded enterprises above a designated size was 9.84 billion yuan ($1.61 billion) and their prime operating income topped 9.68 billion yuan, an increase of 10.9 percent and 9.1 percent respectively, compared with the previous year.

The companies' energy consumption per unit output amounted to 0.0303 tons - about half the average level of all enterprises above designated size. From January to April, the foreign-funded companies recruited 2,000 new staff, which resulted in an increase of 17.1 percent compared with the same period last year.

Edited by Jacob Hooson