Newcomers, old friends gather at CIFTIS to seek new opportunities

The ongoing China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) has attracted scores of new participants this year, with repeat participants also making their mark at the fair.

Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," the trade fair, opened in China's capital city Beijing on Thursday and runs till Monday.

The CIFTIS is becoming more and more international, with a total of 36 Belt and Road partners showcasing their products.

Tharaka Dissanayake who works at the Sri Lankan Embassy in China has participated in the fair many times. He came to promote tea culture this time and believes that tea culture can better strengthen cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.

"For any commodity, it's a huge market. Obviously, this is one of the greatest platforms close to the Chinese consumer, to introduce ourselves, introduce our products, whatever the services or innovation," said Abeysekara, third secretary of the Sri Lankan Embassy in China.

An old friend of the fair was playing an African drum and the rhythmic sound attracted a large crowd.

"I'm here again. Many people took my WeChat and my contact, my number. So they called me, they ordered and they need more," said a Ghanaian exhibitor.

Dewi Avilia, Counselor for Social and Cultural Affairs at the Indonesian Embassy in China, is also attending the exhibition for the second time. She emphasized the need to promote cultural tourism as recent policies have made it easy for more Indonesian friends to travel to China.

"Chengdu and Chongqing have become two of the most popular tourist destinations for Indonesia. A lot of people now are not only talking about Shanghai, but are also talking about Chengdu, visiting the pandas and also Chongqing, because of the landscape. I think it is a good start," said Avilia.

This year's fair has also attracted huge number of new participants showcasing quality products.

"This is my first time. It's a great opportunity that we are able to showcase our products and to let people know about Uganda and Ugandan culture," said Mukisa Joseph, a Ugandan exhibitor.

"The expectations about this fair is to meet many people in the coffee industry. So far we have had a lot of consumers who are interested in roasted coffee. I'm still expecting more," said Mutijima Emma, a Rwandan exhibitor.

An Uzbek exhibitor, who is also a newcomer, initially intended to use this platform to promote his goods, but unexpectedly met partners from many other countries and found potential business opportunities here.

"This is a good platform to see the different global products and see the Chinese market all together. I met so many different people, but I also met many foreign people who are interested in our products. So I call these kind of events more like a globalization event," said Asilbek Khonkhujaev, an Uzbek exhibitor.

The fair has attracted attendees from 85 countries and international organizations, with over 450 Fortune 500 enterprises and companies taking the lead in their respective industries.

Newcomers, old friends gather at CIFTIS to seek new opportunities

Newcomers, old friends gather at CIFTIS to seek new opportunities

The recently-approved action plan for stabilizing foreign investment has attracted a new wave of foreign-funded projects across China.

Formulated to ensure stable foreign investment in 2025, the action plan was approved by a State Council executive meeting last month.

Under the plan, China will support pilot regions in effectively implementing opening-up policies related to such areas as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, providing whole-journey services for foreign-invested projects in these sectors.

In a foreign-funded intelligent manufacturing factory in Suzhou of east China's Jiangsu Province, engineers are making final adjustments to a vehicle-mounted display production line with an annual production capacity of 650,000 units, which is expected to contribute an annual increase in output value of 1.3 billion yuan (about 179.5 million U.S. dollars).

"In addition to the new production line, we will invest an additional 50 million yuan (about 6.9 million U.S. dollars) or so to upgrade the old production line this year, which can also realize automated and digitized production," said Ge Fengchen, general manager of Harman Suzhou branch.

In a smart factory of a foreign-funded elevator production company in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province, two intelligent production lines have just been put into use.

In addition to the Guangzhou factory, this intelligent production line is also scheduled to be put into use in its factories in Shanghai, Tianjin and Chengdu.

"This production line integrates a central control system, a joint control system, and an automatic positioning system. While using the (digital) twin technology on the management platform and automated inspection of the entire process, the production line is able to predict and prevent possible failures," said Jia Yuhui, president of Hitachi Elevator (China) Co., Ltd.

In January alone, a total of 4,229 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established nationwide with 97.59 billion yuan of paid-in foreign investment, increasing by 27.5 percent from December last year, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

"In recent years, the utilized foreign investment in the park has maintained a high growth, and a number of high-quality projects have been launched. The paid-in foreign investment in the first quarter of this year is expected to reach 1 billion U.S. dollars, maintaining growth momentum," said Liu Hua, vice chairman of the Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.

China's favorable policy attracts new wave of foreign-funded projects