Foshan: Logistics have been the backbone industry for this city - the third biggest economic body in Guangdong province.

In 2002, Foshan's municipal government worked out a service industry development plan. "The modern logistics industry should be the leading industry in Foshan," the plan said.

From then on, the government laid out a series of plans to boost the development of the logistics industry.

Having successfully held four international logistics symposiums in the past four years, Foshan found that the annual symposium brought them a lot of economic benefits and made the logistics industry more important in the city.

The four previous symposiums have signed 374 cooperation projects with domestic and foreign investors. The investment amounted to 79.6 billion yuan.

Dozens of internationally well-known logistic companies have invested in Foshan, including Bax Global, Maersk Logistics and Hutchison Whampoa, due to the influence of the symposiums.

"The capacity of Foshan's logistics market exceeded 1 trillion yuan last year," said Zhou Wen, the vice-secretary for the Foshan municipal government.

Currently, Foshan has one national-level high-tech development zone, 29 national or province-level industrial bases, and 25 national famous trademarks.

Last year, the city's GDP reached 358.8 billion yuan, ranked 11th among all cities in the whole country, and third in Guangdong province, following Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

"Thirty-nine of the world's top-500 corporations have invested in 77 programs in Foshan," Zhou said proudly.

Up to 2010, the first cross-cities subway in China will be opened to passengers. This subway will connect Foshan and Guangzhou.

"After that, going to Guangzhou from Foshan will take just 40 minutes," Zhou said.

Depending on the easier transportation, Foshan's logistics industry will reach new heights.

The fifth Foshan International Logistic Symposium will kick off in the emerging city on June 2.

It will have five different activities, including an opening ceremony, business talk, summit conference on international supply links of home electronic appliances, and a logistics job fair.

(HK Edition 05/13/2008 page1)