Foreign investment in China is now diverting from coastal cities to western inland regions, according to a recent report on trends among Singapore companies.

Compiled by the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences and the National University of Singapore, the study attributes the change to more rapid economic growth in the west than in China as a whole.

The report released in late April said that the country's western cities, especially Chengdu, are becoming preferred investment destinations for Singaporean companies and other multinationals.

As of the end of March, Chengdu had attracted 299 Singaporean companies whose investment totals $3.37 billion, of which $3.15 billion is now already in place.

Among those seeking their fortune in the west is the Sino-Singapore (Chengdu) Innovation Park Development Co Ltd, which is responsible for overall planning, construction and marketing of the Singapore-Sichuan High-Tech Innovation Park, known as SSCIP for short.

The 10.34 square kilometer SSCIP is a milestone in the collaboration between Singapore and Chengdu, which also sets the benchmark for clusters of industries with high added value in western China, said its administrators.

The park is focused on developing eight pillar industries - information technology, biomedicine, service outsourcing, new digital media, precision machinery, environmental technology, finance and training.

"As the economy slows down in eastern China, the western part of the country has seen its economy grow at a rate of more than 10 percent for eight consecutive years," according to the jointly researched report.

China's central government development strategy defines the western region as Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces along with Chongqing municipality and Ningxia, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Guangxi autonomous regions .

"They have different features. Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia have advantages in opening up to Southeast or Central Asian countries," noted the study. "Sichuan, Chongqing and Shaanxi have better economic performance and higher development levels, so have been termed the 'Western Delta' (a parallel to the Yangzte River Delta)," the report said.

Regional engine

Liu Shiqing, director-general of the West China Development Research Center at the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences and one of the authors of the report, said many experts predict the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone will become the next major regional engine for the nation's economic development due to its size, growth and technical strength.

The zone is home to 98.4 million people, three-quarters of them in Sichuan province. In 2011, its GDP stood at $440 billion, accounting for 28 percent of the total in western China.

"Especially Chengdu with its favorable geographic location plays an increasingly important role in China's multi-polar pattern of development," Liu said, adding that the city can help companies gain an easy access to a population of at least 200 million people in neighboring regions.

Cheng Yung-nien, head of the Institute of Eastern Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, encouraged more Singaporean entrepreneurs to keep a close eye on Chengdu, which will host the Fortune Global Forum in June. The business gathering of top executives is seen as a barometer of development in the global business community.

As the Chengdu government works to build the city into western China's economic powerhouse, the report predicts the largest opportunities lie in the finance, education, medical care, environmental protection and high-tech industries.

The potential has already attracted many multinationals to Chengdu.

As of May, 238 Fortune 500 companies had branches in the city in a wide range of industries including electronics, IT, automobiles, machinery, finance and energy, the report said.

They will boost the development of their industrial chains and create more investment opportunities, it added.

In addition to Chengdu, the report said Chongqing, Xi'an, Kunming and Guiyang also deserve attention from entrepreneurs.