The Eighth National Yangling Agricultural High-tech Achievements Fair, an annual promotion for China's agricultural technology development, opened yesterday in Yangling, a county in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The fair, which focuses on the utilization of science and technology to promote agricultural development, is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology and 16 other ministries and commissions from the central government and the Shaanxi provincial government, with support from UNESCO and the World Bank.

During the five-day fair, more than 600 high-tech projects, of which some 50 are from abroad, will be displayed, including integrated agriculture, bio-technology, new technology and new breeds, green food, agricultural facilities, agricultural information technology and environment and resources, according to Chen Zongxing, deputy governor of Shaanxi and director of the fair.

The fair has attracted 25 countries and regions, including the United States, Japan and France, Chen said.

Chen told China Daily that during the fair they will organize the signing of contracts on key projects, activities to release information, funding and investment, exchanges of expertise and training in practical agricultural technologies.

"And we will also hold forums and invite experts from China, the United States, Thailand, Belgium and the Netherlands to give lectures on agricultural industrialization and agricultural enterprise development," Chen said.

Since 1994, the fair has been held seven times in Yangling, China's only agricultural high-tech demonstration zone, and has become one of the largest high-tech fairs in China.

And the Yangling Agricultural High-tech and Industries Demonstration Zone which was approved by the central government as the only state-level agricultural high-tech development zone in China in 1997, has become one of the 10 technology parks in China to open to APEC, said Zhang Guangqiang, director of the zone's administrative committee.

(China Daily November 6, 2001)