New facilities like Guangzhou Southern Railway Station are strengthening the city's links to the rest of the nation and the world. Photos provided to China Daily

Zhang said that the investments from large SOEs amounted to more than 300 billion yuan in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) , while committed foreign investment for the period was above $18 billion.

Wan Qingliang, mayor of Guangzhou, had this to add, "The new investment from the Beijing and Shanghai events will help Guangzhou perfect its industrial structure.

"Cooperating with these partners will give Guangzhou future investment potential, and will bring in professionals, technological resources, and international business expertise to help improve its development pattern."

The mayor explained that Guangzhou will have a 20-billion-yuan budget to support "strategic growth industries" - meaning modern services, advanced manufacturing and emerging industries - during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

Modern services generally include exhibitions and conventions, logistics, creativity projects, finance, and tourism. Advanced manufacturing covers the IT, biotechnology and new materials sectors. And emerging industries refer to new-energy automobiles, alternative energies, environmental protection, and marine engineering.

The city of Guangzhou is also asking investors to get involved in the new China-Singapore Knowledge City, the Nansha New District, Tianhe Intelligence Town, and Guangzhou Healthcare Industry Town. All of these are considered key facilities for developing strategic industries.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page16)