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The Shanghai government announced yesterday it will use open bidding more often when leasing land to developers. In the past, the city has used two systems for leasing out land: open bidding and invited tenders, where selected developers are asked to bid for land in deals that lack public scrutiny. Invited tenders will be used far less often in the future, Shanghai government spokeswoman Jiao Yang said during a press conference yesterday. She said the city government has launched an investigation into land leasing in commercial projects, and will strengthen its efforts to clamp down on backroom deals and irregularities in the sector. Following an order in March from the Ministry of Land Resources in Beijing, the city has begun a review of all land transactions since April 2001. "The purpose is to correct any mistakes that may have been made in the past and to improve the administration of land resources," she said. During yesterday's press conference, Jiao also announced that the 2003 Forbes Global CE0 Conference will be held in Shanghai from September 16 to 18 as scheduled, as city government has eased restrictions on travel, exhibitions and conferences that were implemented in April to prevent the spread of SARS. "More than 180 officers have accepted the forum's invitations, as Shanghai and whole China have made tangible progress in the anti-SARS campaign," said Jiao. As a co-sponsor of the event, the city government will choose 30 local government and company officials to attend the conference, which is expected to pool roughly 350 chief executive officers from multinational giants as well as the fast-growing medium-sized firms, she said. The government-sponsored 2003 International Sourcing Conference Shanghai, which is scheduled to open on July 29 at Shanghai Mart, will be the first exhibition to be held in the city following the SARS outbreak. The event is part of the government's efforts to boost local exports, which were hurt by the SARS epidemic. The government will also hold trade promotion activities in Japan, Saudi Arab and Indonesia. "The strong growing trade of local exports is expected to be maintained in the short term, but the potential negative impact of SARS can't be underestimated," Jiao said. Shanghai's exports registered record growth in May with goods worth US$4.1 billion sold overseas. That's a jump of 74.4 percent from last year, and 37 percentage points higher than the national growth rate, according to the Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission. Meanwhile, the 2003 Shanghai Pudong World Carnival will be the first big travel activity to be held in the city after the city eased bans on large events. The mobile amusement fair, which was scheduled to kick off at a 35,000-square-meter site in Pudong on April 25, was put off to June 27 due to the SARS scare.