More than 600 officials and business leaders from China's Guangdong Province and Hong Kong held a Business Conference here with more than 1,000 top Indian business leaders and government representatives attending the event.

The largest Chinese business delegations to India in recent years expect to sign a total of 5 billion U.S. dollars contract with Indian companies during their stay here.

The Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to India, Zhang Yan, and the Minister for Human Resource Development of the Indian Government, Mr. Kapil Sibal, officiated at the conference, and the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Donald Tsang, and Governor of Guangdong, Huang Huahua, delivered keynote speeches.

Addressing the audience in the Conference, Tsang encouraged Indian businesses to join the 1,500 leading Indian companies already operating in Hong Kong, and highlighted the combined business advantages that Hong Kong and Guangdong have to offer for Indian investors.

He gave successful examples of companies setting up headquarters and research and development centers in Hong Kong with manufacturing plants in Guangdong and said the combined model has been recognized in the world.

Mr. Tsang said Hong Kong offers support for research and development, protection of intellectual property rights, and good financial infrastructures while Guangdong in China's mainland has huge labor pool and technical skills.

He pointed out that Hong Kong offers a good base for Indian companies who want to tap China's mainland market and the Asia- Pacific region. With an Indian community of more than 27,000 people, Hong Kong is also a familiar place for Indian entrepreneurs with English language and similar legal system. The Air Services Agreement signed between Hong Kong and India in 2007 has also greatly facilitated air travel between the two places.

Mr. Tsang also noted that "we also share many of the characteristics cherished by entrepreneurs the world over including a fully convertible currency and free flow of capital."

For his part, Huang Huahua detailed the huge potential between China's largest manufacturing base and India.

Contrasting the downside trend of last years' global financial crisis, the trade between Guangdong and India has risen 10 percent, reaching 7.8 billion U.S. dollars which make up one fifth of the total Sino-Indian trade, he said.

During the first eight months of this year, Guangdong province has increased 42 percent of import from India with bilateral trade registering an increase of 15.8 percent. Companies from Guangdong have set 18 offices in India with total investment of 5 million U. S. dollars ranging from electronic appliances to light industry.

Apart from increasing import of iron ore, precious metals and textiles from India and promoting Chinese investment in its own advantage industry, Huang suggests six areas which the two can deepening cooperation, including hardware and software of information technology, medicine, R&D and exchange of business information.

During the conference, representatives from two Indian enterprises, Chairman of Jet Airways, Mr. Naresh Goyal, and Chairman of Asia Pacific, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Mr. Girija Pande, also spoke about their successful experience of operating their businesses in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province.