KUNMING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Companies in southwest China's Yunnan Province signed deals worth 9.6 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) with Taiwanese firms at the Seventh Yunnan-Taiwan Economic, Trade and Cultural Conference on Tuesday.

The deals cover such areas as agriculture, health and bio-medicine, and tourism, according to the organizing committee.

Hosted by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the Yunnan provincial government, the five-day conference attracted around 1,400 entrepreneurs, experts and scholars from both provinces.

By the end of 2017, there were 831 Taiwanese enterprises in Yunnan, with a total investment of about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars and trade volume between the two provinces reached 20 billion yuan.