The program will promote the inland city to the outside world to attract more investment, technology and skilled professionals.

The program follows modern marketing theory, according to Hu Kun, director of Kunming's Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Bureau.

Hu made the remarks at a press conference yesterday during the Third Beijing Chaoyang International Business Festival.

"We plan to incorporate all kinds of new products and services and develop Kunming's latent advantages to enter into the world market as a well-known city in its own right," Hu said.

"This 'integrated commodity' has been put onto the market in a special package to promote the city of Kunming through the use of this combined image. In other words, the idea of promoting Kunming is to sell Kunming to outsiders," Hu added.

Known as the "City of Eternal Spring" for its beautiful scenery and resources, Kunming successfully hosted the 1999 World Horticultural Exposition.

However, other aspects of Kunming such as its advanced biological engineering, software technology and the pharmaceutical industry are unknown to the world.

Cities without well-known industrial sectors are not competitive in the world, said Li Jiang, vice-mayor of Kunming.

While Kunming has only a few well-known companies, it does possess rich natural resources, convenient transportation and a long history.

With China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the quest to become more competitive is even more pressing, officials said.

To this end, Kunming launched a campaign to give local enterprises more publicity domestically and internationally.

(China Daily September 14, 2002)