An aerial view of Guangzhou South Railway Station. [Photo by Su Junjie/Guangzhou Daily]

The business district of Guangzhou South Railway Station in Guangzhou's Panyu district started global investment attraction on Dec 30 with a promotion fair.

About 300 guests from countries and regions including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macao participated in the fair.

Designed to be the "best railway station in the world", Guangzhou South Railway Station is the core hub for rail transit in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the station most used by high-speed trains.

A total of 12 projects were signed during the event including one invested by Evergrande. The total investment of the 12 projects is expected to reach over 100 million yuan ($14.36 billion).

Shi Fei, office director of the administration committee of Guangzhou South Railway Station, said that all eight major projects coming to the area, including the South China headquarters of Lee Kum Kee and the project of Guangzhou Zhongche Railway Sales and Leasing Co Ltd, have started construction.

"Guangzhou South Railway Station will set the modern service industry as the lead and information technology, artificial intelligence and biomedicine as three supports to develop a modern industry system with cultural and sports tourism as its characteristic," said Zhou Qingfeng, deputy director of the Guangzhou municipal development and reform commission.

Hu Gang, professor of Jinan University, pointed out that Guangzhou South Railway Station has unlimited development potential as it is the busiest one in the country.

"The business district will be developed as a comprehensive urban center in the future and the area needs to meet up with the diverse needs of both people and industry in areas spanning business, tourism, living, medicine and education," added Hu.

The passenger throughput of the station reached 174 million from January to November, up 17.03 percent year-on-year. The daily passenger throughput in the same time period amounted to 521,300 and the number on Oct 1 was 757,700, tops in China.