Spokeswoman on Qatari PM's visit to China

China looks forward to taking Qatari Prime Minister's visit to China as an opportunity to promote new progress in bilateral ties, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani paid a visit to China from September 7 to 8 upon invitation.

"China and Qatar are strategic partners. China attaches great importance to developing relations with Qatar. The Chinese side looks forward to taking this visit as an opportunity to promote new progress in bilateral ties," Mao said.

The 26th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) opened in the coastal city of Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province on Tuesday, drawing international exhibitors and delegations to connect global investors with key Chinese markets.

The four-day fair has brought together over 1,200 government agencies and business delegations from 129 countries and regions, which includes 48 of the world's top 50 economies by GDP, while 30 international organizations are also participating.

This year's event marks the biggest ever edition of the long-running trade fair, with the total exhibition space expanding to some 200,000 square meters. It also features 14 specialized exhibition zones, showcasing investment opportunities in various promising sectors including China's "new quality productive forces", an economic strategy which stresses high-tech innovation as a new growth driver, as well as the "Silk Road Maritime" initiative, which looks to resurrect ancient sea trading routes.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Zhou Zuyi, secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said Fujian will step up efforts to establish new mechanisms for a more open economy.

"We will keep expanding institutional opening-up and actively aligning with high-standard global trade rules. We're seizing the opportunity from the pilot program to expand services trade. We're also upgrading our free trade zones, focusing on tech innovation, green development, and digital economy. All to build a more open economy, faster," Zhou said.

This year's edition has also introduced a "dual guest countries of honor" mechanism for the first time, with Finland and Saudi Arabia jointly assuming the role. Two Chinese guest provinces have also been named, with the southern Guangdong and the northwestern Qinghai Province given the honor. The fair is structured around three core thematic sections, namely "Invest in China," "China's Outbound Investment," and "International Investment," and will also see more than 40 key investment promotion events, along with nearly 100 supporting activities being held.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Pedro Manuel Moreno, the Acting Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), emphasized that increasing investment in key strategic fields is essential, saying the trade fair offers a valuable platform for exchanges.

"Strategic sectors, like AI, semiconductors, critical minerals, or clean energy now account for almost half of the value of all new investment projects. This is why I believe gatherings like CIFIT matter more than ever, because the central challenge today is no longer only to mobilize more capital. It is to connect capital to the right projects, in the right places," he said.

First launched in 1997, the CIFIT, organized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, has become an important platform for boosting investment and facilitating global development.