China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Development Co (CSSD) would qualify for going public next year and Hong Kong is one of the choices for the listing, said Suzhou Mayor Yang Weize yesterday.

The company, 65-per-cent held by a Chinese consortium and 35 per cent by a Singapore-led consortium, is the tract land developer of the park.

At the end of April, the park had attracted 1,097 foreign-funded projects, involving contractual foreign investment of US$13.66 billion and actually-utilized foreign investment of US$5.78 billion, according to CSSD.

The gross domestic product, government's revenue and foreign trade in the park grew by 39 per cent, 33.6 per cent and 47.8 per cent respectively last year, CSSD said on its website.

With a total allocated area of 70 square kilometres, the park plans to attract US$100 billion worth of projects in the long term.

In an unrelated development, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp has applied for setting up a representative office in Suzhou, said Yang, who is part of a Suzhou trade delegation to mainly promote the city's service sectors.

The city is offering 140 projects, involving total investment of 81.8 billion yuan (US$9.86 billion), covering sectors such as logistics, trade, tourism, real estate, professional services and education.

Agreements or letters of intent for nine projects, including hotel and real-estate projects, were signed yesterday, with a total value of about US$1 billion.

Yang said with the mainland-Hong Kong free-trade pact, or Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), more opportunities would arise for co-operation between Suzhou and Hong Kong in service sectors.

Suzhou was the largest foreign-direct-investment recipient and the third-largest exporter among mainland cities in the first nine months. Its urban area is planned to double in the next five years, he said.

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