Foreign Investment Sought for ProjectsA total of 236 key projects in Southern Chinese province of Guangdong will be luring overseas investment at a foreign investment and trade fair scheduled from May 16-19 in Hong Kong.And Guangodng is seeking to further expand economic links with neighbouring Hong Kong, according to Liang Weifa, deputy director of Guangdong Provincial Commission of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation. Liang said the projects involved infrastructure, high-tech agriculture, light industry, textiles, heavy and petrochemical industry, electronics, machinery, food, building materials, medicine, real estate, information and tourism. Overseas investors can establish joint ventures, set up wholly funded firms, or buy stocks and properties if they are interested in joining hands in the projects, Liang said. More than 50 per cent of the projects are worth at least US$10 million each. "Guangdong needs plenty of overseas financial support to realize its modernization plan before 2010,'' Liang said. Meanwhile a variety of products from Guangdong will be displayed at the fair, with a view of expanding exports. Vice-Governor Tang Bingquan, who is in charge of foreign trade and investment in Guangdong, will head an official delegation at the Guangdong Economic and Trade Fair. Tang's group will include senior provincial and municipal officials and managers of foreign trade companies in the province's 22 cities. Liang said they would look for ways to purchase advanced technologies, equipment and production lines to upgrade the province's economic structure and help bail out the State-owned enterprises. Spurred by China's pending entry into the World Trade Organization, Guangdong has witnessed a big growth in using overseas investment and foreign trade growth in the first three months this year. The province's import and export volume reached more than US$36 billion in the first quarter, up 36.6 per cent over the same period last year. Export volume came to US$19.99 billion, a growth of 42.2 per cent. And Guangdong's direct foreign investment increased to 54.25 per cent to hit US$1.833 billion during the January-March period, bringing the province's total contracted foreign investment to US$2.323 billion, representing a rise of 41.34 per cent. Guangodng has so far registered more than 70,000 foreign-funded firms and joint ventures and established trade relations with more than 180 countries and regions around the world. |
| Please visit People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |