Contracts valued at 292.6 billion yuan (US$35.25 billion) were inked in the four-day Pan-Pearl River Delta Region Economic and Trade Fair that ended Saturday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

Zhong Yangsheng, head of the fair's organizing committee, said a total of 847 contracts have been signed, including six government projects that involve railway construction, water transportation, electricity supply, labor services and grain marketing.

The rest of the contracts, with a combined investment of 172.4 billion yuan (US$20.77 billion), were clinched between enterprises, covering ten major fields such as infrastructure for energy development, trade, tourism, agriculture, environmental protection and human resources and labor service.

The next Pan-Pearl River Delta Region trade fair was scheduled to be held in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Zhong said.

The Pan-Pearl River Delta Region, known as "9+2", comprises south China's Guangdong and Hainan provinces, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, southwest China's Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, central China's Hunan Province, and east China's Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2004)