Jiangsu inks $4b investment at Silk Road intl expo

The Fourth Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China closed on May 15 in Xi’an, gathering over 700 participants and more than 100 companies from Jiangsu.

The forum, held in Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, was themed on "New Era, New Pattern, and New Development," and attracted more than 200 enterprises from 25 countries and regions such as Russia, the United States and Cambodia.

With the topic of poverty relief as one of its highlights, the forum has become an important platform for the interactive development among different parts of China and to deepen cooperation between China and countries alongside the Belt and Road Initiative.

Jiangsu, as the intersection of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), focused on strategic emerging industries on this year’s forum, displaying new materials, techniques and products in Jiangsu’s exhibition area of 540 square meters.

Zhang Shixiang, deputy director of Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission, said that Jiangsu has inked 120 cooperation projects during the forum, mainly in areas such as industry, agriculture, cultural tourism, and investment and trade. The total investment of these projects reached 27.54 billion yuan ($4 billion)

In addition, Jiangsu also signed a poverty alleviation project during the forum with Shaanxi province, which is set to help 29 impoverished counties and 565,000 poverty stricken people in the next two years.