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Shanghai yesterday clinched 11 overseas-funded projects worth a total of US$1.42 billion. The deals came the day after World Health Organization experts commented that the city is safe to visit, following their three-day inspection of the city's port, railway station and two airports. The Shanghai Foreign Investment Commission said the newly signed projects will mainly go to the city's suburbs and cover the electronics, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The United States-based Hanson Technologies sealed the biggest deal by investing US$500 million in the computer chip industry in the city's western suburban Qingpu District. Vice-Mayor Zhou Yupeng yesterday predicted that the city's suburbs will become a major destination for overseas capital. Zhou urged local district governments to work to attract more overseas capital. During the first four months of this year, the city's suburban areas attracted US$2.5 billion of overseas investment, more than half the city's total. Many of the foreign investment projects went to the city's four suburban manufacturing bases, including microelectronics in the east, automobiles in the west, petrochemicals in the south and fine steel in the north. The city's inflow of overseas investment has maintained good momentum, according to commission officials. Liu Jinping, the commission's vice-director, said: "We expect foreign capital inflow to surpass last year's US$10.5 billion but our set aim is only US$9 billion due to many uncertainties." In another development, 13 local trading companies are to organize 20 delegations to travel abroad in June to seek business deals. The commission revealed that around 40 new projects in Shanghai are seeking the participation of international businesses this year. These projects cover infrastructure construction, the chemical industry, electronics and machinery, non-ferrous metals and light industry.