Jiangmen attracts bulk of funding
Officials from provincial and city governments in Guangdong have signed agreements with overseas investors for 22 projects worth a total of US$1.67 billion at an economic forum held at the Second World Guangdong Community Federation meeting.
Jiangmen county managed to walk away with the biggest investment - US$1.3 billion for a pulp and paper project by Singapore's Jin Ying International Group.
The additional investment took the Singapore group's stake in the project up to US$1.92 billion.
Apart from pulp and paper, the other projects were in several sectors including electronics, textiles, packaging, machinery, chemicals and real estate development, the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation of Guangdong's deputy director general Zhao Yufang said at the signing ceremony.
Investment from overseas Chinese - from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan - accounted for about 80 per cent of the foreign direct investment in Guangdong, which exceeded US$25.1 billion to date, vice-governor Yang Binquan said.
The meeting was first held by the loose federation of Guangdong clan associations in Singapore two years ago to provide a platform through which overseas Guangdong people could network.
About 3,000 people from more than 60 countries attended this year's meeting compared with 1,900 in Singapore but one participant from Hong Kong said the increase in the size of the meeting did not indicate an increased interest in the gathering.
It reflected the organiser's ability to reach more clan associations, she said.
Hong Kong would host the next meeting in two years' time, sources said.
