124 cities to attend Asia Pacific Cities Summit in SW China

A total of 124 cities from 41 Asia Pacific countries and regions will attend the 2005 Asia Pacific Cities Summit slated for Wednesday in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, local official and organizer said Tuesday.

By 9 a.m. on Tuesday, 932 participants have checked in for the coming summit, including 210 from the Chinese mainland and 722 from overseas, said Wu Jianong, deputy mayor of Chongqing, at a press conference for the summit.

Among the 124 cities, 107 were from foreign countries in America, Oceania, Asia, Europe and Africa, including 16 capitals, Wu said.

Twelve cities from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan will also attend the summit, said Wu, adding that the three cities from Taiwan were Taipei city, Taichung city and Taoyuan county.

In addition to cities, 32 companies from the Chinese mainland and 255 companies from overseas will be present at the summit, such as GE, Siemens, Sony and Petro China, Wu said.

"Different from previous sessions, a forum on economy and trade will be held at this year's summit to offer an opportunity for mayors and CEOs as well as scholars to have fact-to-face dialogues," Wu said.

This year's session, as the first one that is to be held in China and in Asia as well, aroused great attention of press organizations. So far, altogether 459 reporters from 126 press organizations have confirmed their attendance, including 10 foreign organizations, nine from Hong Kong and four from Taiwan, according to Wu.

As the initiator of the summit, the city of Brisban from Australia came here with a 120-member delegation led by Mayor Campell Newman, boasting the largest delegation.

Wang Hongju, mayor of Chongqing, host of the summit, will head a 91-member delegation for the summit, Wu said.

Source: Xinhua