China-ASEAN Expo inks $19.7b worth of deals

Delegates attend the signing ceremony of the 10th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, capital of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sept. 4, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

NANNING - About $19.7 billion worth of investment deals were struck at the 10th China-ASEAN Expo held in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the organizer said Wednesday.

Of all, 73 international cooperation projects involve a total of $8.6 billion and 94 domestic deals are worth 68.1 billion yuan ($11.1 billion), the expo secretariat said in a statement.

The international cooperation deals cover areas of agriculture, forestry, mining, industrial manufacturing, transport, energy, infrastructure, tourism, catering and logistics.

Outbound investment accounts for 40 percent of the total value of international cooperation deals, up 16.6 percent from a year ago.

Deals between Chinese companies and their peers from nine ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states were worth $3.4 billion, an increase of 30 percent from a year ago.

The fund will be mainly invested in sectors like biotechnology, modern agriculture, traditional Chinese medicine, e-commerce and tourism rather than in earlier favored sectors such as traditional manufacturing and mining, it said.

Meanwhile, the expo has attracted increased interest from businesses in countries and regions like the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia and Hong Kong.