Changsha, the capital of Hunan province held opening ceremony for the 7th Expo Central China, on May 18 and Datong of Shanxi province prepared itself well for the event, choosing 42 projects worth 24.47 billion yuan ($3.87 billion), on which it hopes to sign agreements at the Expo.

The Datong Investment Attraction Bureau began its project search in mid-February to search out any problems in the projects that might hinder investment or affect the industrial structure. After all the searching, classifying and evaluation was done across districts and counties, the bureau had found 221 investment projects, worth 163.54 billion yuan, and was hoping to get 151.68 billion yuan in investment.

The Bureau says that, of the 42 Expo projects, four are in agriculture, 29 in industry, six in the service industry, two in transport infrastructure, and one in tourism. They were selected for promotion after a thorough review by the provincial Development and Reform Commission and three other departments. Exhibit preparations for Expo 2012 have been underway since April.

Expo Central China is one of Datong’s major channels for getting investment. At last year’s Expo, Datong signed 65 investment projects in a variety of areas, worth a total of 200.5 billion yuan, a record-breaking event in the amount of investment, number of partners, and level of the projects.