The third Expo Central China concluded on Monday in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, with business people from 113 countries and regions signing agreements with six central provinces on projects valued at more than 300 billion yuan (US$42.9 billion).

Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said at the three-day event that China welcomed business people from around the world to invest in central China and encouraged foreign investors to take over smaller state-owned enterprises there or to help revitalize them through taking stakes.

According to Chen, overseas investors are also encouraged to establish manufacturing bases, investment companies and development and research centers in central China.

The region considered to be central China spans six provinces: Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan. It covers 1.03 million square kilometers and its population accounts for 28 percent of the total. Its provincial economies make up 20 percent of the national total. It is a major grain production base, an important transport hub and a leading energy and raw materials supplier.

Pressured by limited resources and mounting production costs, some developed countries, as well as companies from eastern China, have transferred their operations to the relatively less developed central region of China at an accelerating pace in recent years.

Wuhan, poised as the "bridgehead" of central China, has seen annual growth of 30 percent in investments from other parts of the country and abroad over the past three years. More than 70 "Fortune 500" companies have built manufacturing facilities, research and development centers or China headquarters here.

Noting these trends, some foreign financial institutions looked around central China in 2006 and 2007, preparing to open branches and offices in Wuhan or in Changsha (capital of Hunan), Nanchang (capital of Jiangxi) and Zhengzhou (capital of Henan).

In 2005, the central government drew up a strategy for development of the central region and in April 2006, it determined a policy framework for this purpose.

To this end, Wuhan has been built up as the country's fourth railroad and aviation hub after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Construction of infrastructure -- including transport, communications and energy services -- is under way around the six central provinces.

The third Expo China Event had as its theme "accepting industrial transfers and promoting rise of central China." Its organizing committee said that 673 projects involving foreign direct investment were concluded, involving US$16.17 billion in foreign capital. The expo also saw 766 projects with investment from other part of China signed, valued at 245.12 billion yuan.

The deals involved new and high-technologies, environmental protection, tourism, financial services, machinery and engineering, vehicle manufacturing and auto parts.

"The Chinese government's regulatory support of the central regions is very attractive," said Bob Hart, head of manufacturing department of the Britain-based Proven Energy, which came to China for the first time.

He said that central China had developed manufacturing, easy access and huge market potential, and that was why his company had come.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2008)