Baishan city in northeast China's Jilin Province signed 17 cooperative projects with nine countries and regions Monday in the just-concluded international mineral water festival held there, with total investment hitting 3.51 billion yuan (433 million US dollars).

About 350 experts and entrepreneurs from Germany, France, Canada, China and other countries and regions attended the two-day festival -- the Second China Baishan international Mineral Water Festival, said mayor of the city Zhou Huachen.

Baishan city, lying at the foot of the Changbai Mountain, has water resources totaling 8 billion cubic meters. The city has as many as 130 mineral waterheads with daily flow reaching 230,000 cubic meters.

The mineral water in the city contains elements such as carbonic acid, strontium and lithium. The city is regarded as one of the world's richest regions of mineral water along with the renowned Alps and the North Caucasus.

The International Foundation for the Protection of Drinking Water (IFPDW) has sent experts to assess Baishan's mineral water twice since 2002 and concluded that the mineral water here has reached the standards set up by Germany and the European Union.

The IFPDW named the city "China International Mineral Water City" in August 2004.

Two major Chinese drinking water companies, Wahaha and Nongfu Spring have set up factories in the city to develop mineral water.

To date, the city has developed an annual mineral water production capacity of nearly 1 million tons, which will be promoted to 2 million tons by 2010, said the mayor.

(Source: Xinhua; Photo: cbs.gov.cn)