Entrepreneurs and officials from around the world have gathered for the 26th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) which opened on Tuesday in the coastal city of Xiamen of east China's Fujian Province.
The four-day fair has brought together over 1,200 government agencies and business delegations from 129 countries and regions, including 48 of the world's top 50 economies by GDP.
The event is themed around expanding two-way investment and promoting global development and is structured around three pillars — "Invest in China," "China's Outbound Investment" and "International Investment" — and has for the first time named dual guest countries of honor, Finland and Saudi Arabia.
Finland's Minister of Economic Affairs Sakari Puisto came to Xiamen to make the case that Finnish industrial expertise and China's market scale are a natural fit, saying he believes there are abundant opportunities ahead.
"We had in total more than 10 billion euros of investments in China by Finnish companies, 12 billion [euros]. So that's quite substantial. China has been developing very fast, and our companies have world-class expertise in sustainability, advanced industrial solutions, and advanced manufacturing. By combining that expertise and top quality with the scale of China and the quality of Chinese companies, I think we will have lots of collaborative opportunities for the future," he said.
Morten Wierod, President and CEO of ABB, a global technology company specializing in electrification and automation, stressed the importance of showing up in person in order to keep pace with China's development.
"For me, coming here and looking at China is really a long-term play. It's about understanding the local environment, and what is changing. Because China is (developing) so fast, you have to be here on a regular basis," he said.
As the trade fair continues to grow in scale, both the size of the dedicated financial exhibition area and the number of financial exhibitors have doubled from last year.
A special zone for China's CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) makes its debut at this year's event, alongside a new area for 'new quality productive forces', which will showcase the latest high-tech innovations, including in frontier areas such as artificial intelligence.
More than 40 key investment promotion events will be held during the fair, along with nearly 100 supporting activities including capital matchmaking and roadshows. Among these is the "Cloud CIFIT" platform, which pools investment projects, corporate financing and industrial funds, making project and capital matching faster through digital tools.
First launched in 1997, the CIFIT, organized by the Ministry of Commerce, has become an important platform for boosting investment and facilitating global development.
Global investors gather for Xiamen fair with focus on two-way investment
