Special Supplement: Big business fair gains international reputation

Checkbooks have been working overtime since the 18th China Harbin International Fair for Trade and Economic Cooperation, held in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in June.

Statistics show that foreign contracts worth $10.23 billion and domestic contracts worth 91.13 billion yuan have been signed during the five-day event, respectively increasing 15.9 and 16.7 percent compared with the previous session a year ago.

The host province alone secured $9.35 billion in foreign contracts and 83.87 billion yuan in domestic contracts.

Compared with previous sessions, the 18th fair has drawn broader attention from around the world, a provincial government official Huang Weimin said.

According to the organizing committee, 11,473 businesspeople from 81 countries and regions including Russia, the United States, the European Union, Japan and Singapore, participated in the renowned event.

The number of Chinese participants from 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions exceeded 11,000.

Extensive foreign and domestic interest in the event demonstrates how Harbin Fair has grown into an international event over the past 18 years, Huang said.

The number of the big firms, including Fortune Global 500 companies and multinationals, reached 322 this year, a highlight of this event.

Huang cited the special purchase delegation sent by US-based Home Depot, one of leading retailers in the world, as prime example of what sort of caliber of business the fair was attracting.

Six US-invested projects with a total investment value of $100 million and six European-invested with a total investment value of $150 million, excluding contracts with Russian companies, were signed during the event.

Meanwhile, 70 foreign investment projects totaling $2.45 billion and 518 domestic investment deals were closed.

As host, Heilongjiang Province was one of the biggest winners.

Huang said a Hong Kong-based company and Jiamusi municipal government jointly invested the biggest foreign investment project, a paper pulp project with a planned annual output of 1 million tons and an initial investment value of $330 million.

And the host province also secured the biggest foreign trade contract, amounting to $360 million.

The province achieved 45 foreign projects, each exceeding $10 million in investment value, and 123 domestic investment projects each exceeding 100 million yuan in investment value.

A string of high-level business promotional activities, including the Russia Business Day, the Journey of US companies to Heilongjiang, the Sino-German Economic and Trade Cooperation Talks and the Cooperative Talks on Forest Industry among Chinese, Russian and Finnish Business Communities, bolstered the event's success.

About 66 "technological contracts" worth 723 million yuan were signed.

The 18th session was the most successful one in the Harbin Fair history, with the biggest number of contracts closed, Huang said.

He said the Harbin fair offered an important platform for regional cooperation and international exchanges, spurring growth of the local economy.

(China Daily 09/05/2007 page12)