Exports of machinery and electronic products totalled more than US$4.1 billion by Sunday when the first part of the event ended.

Fair officials have predicted export contracts signed by machinery and electronic companies and their overseas counterparts would total between US$7 billion and US$8 billion when the fair ends on October 30, accounting for a large part of the event's total export volume.

Exports of textiles and garment reached US$1.53 billion while export contracts of food and native produce, mineral and chemical products stood at US$388 million and US$655 million respectively by Sunday.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the European Union and the United States continued to be the top three trade partners of the fair which is jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation and the Guangdong provincial government.

The fair takes place in Guangzhou every spring and autumn and is divided into two parts each time. It typically contributes more than 30 percent of China's total export volume each year.

Chinese companies clinched a total of US$9.33 billion in export deals in the first part of this autumn's exhibition, showing a 10 percent increase from the same period in the previous spring event.

Guangdong Province, which has signed around US$2 billion in export contracts so far, was the biggest Chinese exporter in the first part of the exhibition.

The first exhibition of the fair opened on October 15 and ends on Sunday while the second exhibition will open next Friday.

A record 72,158 business people from around the world had visited the fair as of last Sunday. Of these people, 72 percent came from Asia, 11.22 percent from European Union countries.

(China Daily October 22, 2002)