A Chinese mainland autonomous region will send a large buying group to Taiwan in May, which is expected to purchase 160 million U.S. dollars of products, said local officials.

The buying group, consisting of more than 100 businesses from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, will be sent to Taiwan along with a delegation of 1,000 people to the 5th Conference on Guangxi-Taiwan Economic and Trade Cooperation scheduled May 22, said Guangxi regional government chairman Ma Biao in talks with visiting Chiang Hsiao-yen, vice chairman of the Kuomintang.

The procurement group would go to Kaohsiung and Taipei, Sun Jianqiu, deputy director of Guangxi Regional Commerce Department, told reporters.

Chiang said the buying group is unprecedented as earlier delegations from the mainland came to Taiwan only to attract investment.

In addition, a tourists group, an art troupe and a group for traditional Chinese medicine exchanges from the region will also visit Taiwan, Ma said.

The two sides inked 180 investment projects worth 8 billion U.S. dollars during the past four economic and trade cooperation conferences.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2009)