5th China-ASEAN Expo wraps up

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Source: CCTV.com | 10-26-2008 11:06

The fifth China-ASEAN Expo has wrapped up in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Participants say they were able to seize better opportunities for growth, as they try to navigate the global financial crisis.

As ASEAN countries signed more projects than during the  last expo, total investment grew nearly 40 percent. Trade,  telecommunications, infrastructure and pharmaceutical  engineering were among the major projects.

The four-day expo produced contracts for more than 350 investment projects worth over 100-billion yuan, or 15-billion US dollars. Total business turnover was nearly 1.6 billion US dollars. That's up more than 12 percent over last year's expo.

More than three-thousand companies pitched their finest products and projects to buyers and investors, from home and abroad.

The Guangxi State Farms is one of the big winners. On Thursday alone, it signed 34 projects with enterprises from ASEAN countries.

Peng Feirong, the division director of Guangxi State Farms, said, "Our farms grow high quality cassava. Through research and innovative processing, we produce starch, alcohol, fertilizer and other by-products that can be used in papermaking, textiles, food, medicine and construction materials. Even waste material can be made into flowerpots that are environmentally friendly."