Henan hosts companies seeking opportunities

The most important investment expo for central China opens today in Zhengzhou, helping businesses from around the world tap into opportunities in the region, especially in the host province and city.

The annual Central China Expo is held in turns in the six central Chinese provinces - Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan. This is Henan's second time to host, the first being the second session in 2007.

Now in its eighth installment, the three-day expo's primary themes are facilitating constant economic transformation, achieving coordinated development and promoting the rise of the region, according to the organizing committee.

The expo is expected to be mutually beneficial for central China provinces according to the State's "Rise of Central China" strategy, organizers said.

A series of forums and trade fairs will be held for companies from China and abroad, helping them exchange information and make deals.

Organizers said about 33,000 business representatives have been invited to take part in the expo, including 5,400 from foreign countries. It is projected that they will bring large amounts of investment into Henan and other central Chinese provinces.

A total of 431 companies on China's top 500 and the Fortune 500 have confirmed their attendance at the expo, according to the latest statistics from the organizing committee.

The local government of the host city plans to use the event as a chance to boost its economy.

They said at least 91 large investment projects in the city will be signed during the expo based on information collected from participating companies in advance by May 12.

These projects cover a wide range of fields, including aviation, trade, logistics, electronic information and biomedicine.

According to the Zhengzhou delegation to the expo, the largest of all the projects is an industrial park for broadband wireless communications that will involve an investment of 30 billion yuan in its first phase.

There is also a garment-manufacturing park that needs a 9-billion-yuan investment.

And some Hong Kong companies already announced their intent to invest 4.6 billion yuan in a lithium ion battery R&D and production facility in Zhengzhou, with the agreements to be finalized during the expo.

Businesses in Henan province have signed agreements on 2,455 projects during the past seven expos, of which 510 are operational to date, according to statistics from the provincial commerce department.

The main session of the expo is being held in the Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center, which has an exhibition area of 65,000 square meters.

There are three parallel sessions in cities of Luoyang, Luohe and Sanmenxia from May 18 to 20.

A highlight of today's schedule is a mayors' forum in Luoyang city, where some mayors from the central provinces will meet with senior executives from globally renowned companies, such as Microsoft, Pepsi Co, Wal-Mart, Dell and General Motors, to talk about new paths to economic growth in the future.

They will highlight ways to improve the current industrial structure and how to promote modern agricultural development, according to the event's organizers.

Tourism development and cooperation is another focus of the expo.

He Lin, deputy director of the Henan Tourism Administration, said there will be a special fair to promote major tourist attractions and investment opportunities in central China and other regions.

He said about 600 tourism-related investment projects will be introduced during the fair.