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)
