First conference to promote 2018 CIFIT held in Beijing

The first promotional conference for the 2018 China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) was held in Beijing on April 18.

The conference was attended by 600 representatives from Chinese local governments' investment promotional organizations, embassies and consulates in China, business associations, and investment and financing institutes at home and abroad.

During the conference, Zhang Ming from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shared his analysis on the macro-economic situation and investment trend in 2018.

Czech Republic ambassador to China and director of the Commerce Department of Yunnan province, the guest country and province of honor for the 2018 CIFIT, shared fruitful results yielded by attending the CIFIT over the past years.

The organizing committee of the 2018 CIFIT also signed cooperation agreements with China Association of Enterprises and the Investment Association of China during the conference and as a result, more resources are now available for the CIFIT.

A project matchmaking activity was also held during the conference. With the help of advanced technologies, the organizing committee got acquainted with the participating organizations before the conference and then arranged seats according to their cooperative demands, which improved the efficiency of project matchmaking.

Such a promotional conference is expected to be organized in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities in China to invite more businessmen and related organizations to attend this year's CIFIT.

This year marks the 40th anniversary for China's reform and opening-up and is also the first year for the implementation of the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

The organizing committee said that this year's CIFIT would make more innovations and serve as a more efficient platform where participating businessmen and organizations seek economic cooperation and investment.

As for exhibitions, the event's exhibitions plan to occupy 138,000 square meters with 6,500 booths, including an investment-themed pavilion and an investment attraction-themed pavilion.

This year's guest country and province of honor will set up a pavilion with 800 square meters and 1,000 square meters respectively.

Themed exhibition areas, such as emerging industries, commercial we-media and copyright investment, will also be established for the first time.

As for forums, the 2018 International Investment Forum will focus on two-way investment and its sub-forums will pay particular attention to the Belt and Road Initiative, cooperation among BRICS, foreign investment attraction, overseas investment, and cross-Straits economic cooperation.

China's Ministry of Commerce, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) are invited to release policies and reports regarding regional, national and global investment during the 2018 CIFIT.

As for project matchmaking activities, procedures of applying for participating projects will be simplified and services related to investment consultation and project matchmaking activities will be further optimized.

The online CIFIT will also be in service to help registered projects seek appropriate investors at any time and in any place.