2011-07-28 14:22

CHENGDU - Guizhou and Sichuan provinces signed 54.1 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) worth of contracts in this capital city of Sichuan on Wednesday, marking closer economic cooperation between the two southwestern Chinese provinces.

The investment from Sichuan will find its way into 30 projects in Guizhou.

The projects range from transportation infrastructure to processing, manufacturing, strategic and emerging industries, tourism, modern agriculture and logistics. Each will receive an investment of more than 100 million yuan.

They inclue the construction of a large commercial area in the city of Huaxi in Guizhou with an investment of 9 billion yuan and the construction of an auto trade city in Pingba county of Guizhou.

All the construction projects will kick off before June 30, 2013, according to Guizhou vice-governor Meng Qiliang.

As a close neighbor of Guizhou, Sichuan invested more than 112.5 billion yuan in 680 projects in Guizhou during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), becoming an importance source of investment for Guizhou, he said.

Thanks to construction of the Guiyang-Chengdu Railway and the Guizhou-Chengdu section of the Xiamen-Chengdu Expressway, the distance between the two provinces will be shorter, which will lay a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation, he added.