Contracts to be signed, projects to be agreed at key business event

Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong province hosted its annual investment conference on Thursday and Friday, in an effort to promote its international business environment and become the best choice for enterprises' investment and development.

According to the local government, the conference is the first large investment promotion event in Guangzhou since the COVID-19 outbreak, aiming to showcase the city's achievements in investment promotion and let domestic and foreign entrepreneurs know more about the city.

Later on Friday, around 20 key projects will be signed, including 13 projects with planed investment of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) each. The total contract investment of these projects exceeds 500 billion yuan.

After the signing ceremony, 11 districts in Guangzhou will break ground of nearly 200 projects with investment of 300 billion yuan.

According to the local government, many of these projects focus on artificial intelligence, digital economy, smart connectivity, advanced manufacturing and high-end services, with the aim to improve the industry and supply chain in the development of high-end industries.

The annual investment conference has been hosted for five consecutive years, and has invited domestic and foreign heavyweights to deliver speeches themed with economic forward-looking topics.

The guests are invited to visit the Nansha free trade zone, the Guangzhou key area of the AI and digital economy test zone, Guangzhou Science City, China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, Guangzhou International Bio Island and other business areas to experience the business environment of the city. The conference will host three forums featuring emerging industries, such as biomedicine, intelligent connectivity and AI, to seek new opportunities in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

According local officials, the city has made important achievements in the prevention and control of the pandemic at the present stage and is speeding up its economic recovery.

Early this year, the city selected 1,642 key projects with total investment of 4.5 trillion yuan and made great efforts to promote the construction of these projects.

This year's investment in key projects is expected to reach 480 billion yuan, accounting for 60 percent of target fixed investment in Guangzhou.

The number of projects, the scale of investment and the annual investment will all hit new highs.

Through efforts to promote the construction of the key projects, the city estimates that the investment in fixed assets in Guangzhou will increase by more than 12 percent to 800 billion yuan.

According to the local government, a total of 301.9 billion yuan in investment in key projects has been completed in the first seven months of this year.

Guangzhou had completed the investment of 101.6 billion yuan for 423 major infrastructure projects by July.

The city started the construction of the Baiyun Airport's third-phase expansion project, the Guangzhou Nansha sector of the Shenzhen-Maoming Railway, Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed rail and others.

In the key industrial sector, 673 projects have completed investment of 123.3 billion yuan.

The construction of the Skyworth intelligent industry innovation base ultra-high-definition display technology industry park, the Visionox sixth generation flexible module production line and the new energy vehicle projects of GAC Toyota and Baoneng have all begun.

Guangzhou has also accelerated the construction of key livelihood projects to strengthen public services. The projects include the Eighth People's Hospital, the second phase of Guangzhou international campus of South China University of Technology and new sewage treatment facilities.