Wang Yuanyuan, Jiang Mengyun

    cheekywang@hotmail.com

    CONTRACTS or agreements for 157 projects, each worth more than 100 million yuan (US$16 million), were signed in the first three days of the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF), which ended yesterday.

    Among them are a 13-billion-yuan HB City project for a filmmaking cluster in Shenzhen and a 2.4-billion-yuan Ronisch Piano project in Hebei Province, according to the fair’s organizer.

    The total transaction volume at this year’s fair increased by 15.85 percent from last year’s ICIF, but Hu Mou, deputy secretary general of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, did not reveal the actual volume amount at yesterday’s press conference.

    In the first three days, the total transaction volume at the 43 subvenues across the city increased by 29.75 percent from last year, accounting for nearly 51 percent of this year’s total transaction volume.

    The export volume of cultural products increased by nearly 10 percent from last year’s fair.

    About 40 overseas delegations from about 10 countries and regions attended this year’s fair, Hu said.

    A total of 14,622 overseas buyers from 93 countries and regions visited the fair from Friday to Sunday, and the number of other overseas visitors reached 52,250.

    This was the first year in which the ICIF built a cooperative relationship with the Canton Fair, attracting many overseas visitors and exhibitors at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou.