Guangdong's provincial capital Guangzhou is striving to become a major convention and exhibition center in southern China, with the exhibition industry playing a bigger part in its economic growth.

 

The city plans to expand the exhibiting area of its Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center and organize more professional international fairs and exhibitions, reports the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolitan News.

 

Located on the southern bank of the Pearl River in the city's Haizhu District, Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center is expected to become the world's largest such center covering an exhibiting area of more than 250,000 square meters when its second phase of construction is completed by the end of the year.

 

The second phase will cost over 2 billion yuan and have 10,000 exhibition booths.

 

Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center now has an exhibiting area of 160,000 square meters, the second-biggest in the world after Hannover Exhibition Center in Germany.

 

An international purchasing center will also be completed by the end of year, providing more business opportunities for the growing number of international buyers. It will span more than 200,000 square meters.

 

Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center is already a major exhibition hall for the Chinese Import and Export Commodities Fair, China's biggest trade event.

 

The fair attracts more than 400,000 overseas business representatives every year. It's estimated that businesspeople annually spend more than 7 billion yuan in Guangzhou during the two sessions of the biannual event.

 

Ye Haojun, chief engineer of Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Planning, said the city government will spend more to improve the infrastructural facilities of the Pazhou exhibition center. "A number of highways and metro lines are being constructed near the center to make it more accessible."

 

(China Daily August 3, 2007)