Chen Mingde, vice-mayor of Guangzhou, is encouraging more foreign companies to participate in developing the city's air transportation industry.

Guangzhou has mapped out a strategy to tap its potential as an international cargo aviation transportation and logistics hub, Chen said.

"That offers a myriad of investment and business opportunities for foreign investors and business representatives," Chen told The Airport-Related Economy Development Seminar 2007.

"The room for foreign investment in the city's airport-related economy is big enough," Chen said. He promised foreign investors and businesspeople would earn profits if they participated.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, one of the country's three busiest airports, has been determined to become the world's 15th largest in terms of cargo volume before 2015.

To this end, the airport has also been urged to expand cooperation with neighboring airports in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, as well as in Shenzhen and Zhuhai special economic zones, to increase the region's cargo transportation business.

And construction of a new runway will commence early next year to accommodate growing passenger and cargo transportation volumes.

The runway, the airport's third, has been scheduled to be put into use in 2010 when the city holds the 16th Asian Games. The airport plans to operate 50 international flights that year.

With the completion of its third runway, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport would be able to accommodate more than 720,000 plane takeoffs and landings annually.

(China Daily November 23, 2007)