Chongqing, the largest municipality in China, hopes to attract more foreign investment for its agricultural industry during a three-day agricultural fair which opened on November 19.

Altogether 195 enterprises, with 31 from the United States, Canada, Japan, Israel, and South Africa, are attending the fair, and 22 investment agreements already have been signed, said the organizers.

More than 100 investment projects in areas including plant production, animal husbandry, and aqua-culture, are expected to attract as much as 6 billion yuan (720 million U.S. dollars). In order to accelerate the city's agricultural development, a series of preferential policies have been implemented, and a dozen experimental areas have been set up in the city, said Vice Mayor Chen Guoguang.

He said the city attracted overseas investment of 59.23 million U.S. dollars last year.

Chongqing, the economic center at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, includes 40 counties and districts and is a combination of an urban economy and agriculture. The city's total crop yield last year was 11.55 million tons, accounting for an output value of 29.52 billion yuan (US$3.54 billion).