The 2018 China International Fair for Investmentand Trade (CIFIT) will highlight the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and two-way investment promotion, especially along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road,according to a recent news conference held in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province.

The upcoming event will run from Sept 8 to 11 in Xiamen,Fujian province.

A 2,000-square-meter investment pavilion exclusive for the countries along the road will be established, where more than 20 such countries, including all the members of the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN), have confirmed their presence.

The Czech Republic, this year’s guest country of honor, has reserved a 500-square-meter booth and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) intends to set up six booths to display the achievements in green industrial cooperation made by countries along the Maritime Silk Road. 

Themed on the BRI, CIFIT’s organizers plan to launch a series of relevant forums, including one on global production capacity cooperation, a commercial forum among members of ASEAN, a digital city forum,and a women’s forum.

The organizers also collected a group of project proposals for investments targeted at Maritime Silk Road countries and hope to make the forthcoming event serve as an efficient platform where relevant roadshows, project matchmaking activities and investment plan releases can be staged.

Over the past 20 years, CIFIT has always followed China’s reform and opening-up policies, taken part in the country’s key national strategies, such as the BRI, the development of China’s western regions and there vitalization of northeast China, and highlighted global investment.

In recent years, CIFIT has sought to integrate with the BRI. It has promoted countries along the Belt and Road to act in various years asits guest country of honor, including Malaysia, Bahrain, Italy, and Georgia,and rolled out activities for them according to their economic features, industrial conditions and advantages in resources.

Last year, a BRI-themed exhibition area wasestablished and attracted more than 20 countries and regions along the Belt andRoad route.

The 2001 CIFIT launched 10,000 projects which were to invest in China’s western regions and these regions also signed more than 200 contracts with foreign companies worth $4.3 billion, accounting for 17.1 percent of the total signed contracts at that year’s event.

The 2004 CIFIT highlighted the revitalization of northeast China and held a forumon the national strategy.

After 20 years’ development, the CIFIT now has grown into the largest, most influential and most comprehensive two-way investment promotion event in the world.

Last year, the fair facilitated the signing of 1,577 investment projects worth 532.7 billion yuan ($76.82 billion) and drew the attendance of more than100,000 representatives of 4,000 domestic and foreign companies, 700 business groups and 40 multinational corporations from 107 countries and regions.