China To Hold On-line Trade FairAn on-line trade fair is to open on June 2 to attract overseas Chinese and foreign investment in China's vast central and western regions.The On-line Economic and Technological Cooperation Fair, the first of its kind in China, will last until the end of the year, according to Li Haifeng, deputy director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. People interested in the fair can log on at: www.chinainvest. net.cn/qbh for information and for contacting potential Chinese partners. Eighteen Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, along with several coastal cities, will participate in the fair, which will provide a total of 1,800 projects in the fields of energy, machinery, electronics, and agriculture. During the fair, business weeks will be held in all the 18 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities to provide detailed information about their economies and answer questions on- line, the official said. The trade fair is jointly sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and the China Information Society. Over a dozen industrial and business groups in Hong Kong, Macao, the United States, Canada, Holland, and South Africa also have become the fair's co-sponsors, linking the fair with their own homepages to facilitate inquiries from their members. This is the third trade fair that has been held for the country 's central and western regions. The 1998 fair attracted over 2,000 overseas Chinese and foreign businesses, inking more than 300 agreements worth US$8.79 billion. The upcoming on-line fair represents a completely new experiment under the new situation, the official said, |
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