Silk Road expo sees fruitful results in fostering global cooperation

The 7th Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East & West China came to a close in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, on Nov 20.

In five days, the expo brought together 1,217 overseas guests and merchants from more than 80 countries and regions, with over 200,000 offline visitors and over 7.5 million clicks on the expo's official website.

This year's expo saw significant progress in regional cooperation, achieving a series of results in eight major areas, including modern agriculture, infrastructure, equipment manufacturing, technology, light industry, food, medicine, energy conservation and environmental protection, trade and logistics, and cultural tourism.

Some 1,857 cooperation projects were signed at the expo, with a total investment of 1.22 trillion yuan ($171.04 billion).

These included 46 projects with a foreign investment contract value of $9.06 billion, and 1,811 domestic joint projects worth 1.16 trillion yuan.

During the expo, a proposal for cooperation between overseas Chinese organizations was released; the Silk Road Development Branch of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment was unveiled, and the Shaanxi Sub-council of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Mexican Chamber of Commerce in China.

Also, 82 conferences, forums, and investment promotion activities were held during the expo in various fields, such as jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), economic and trade exchanges, service trade, and industrial transfers.

This year's expo featured six exhibition areas for international exchanges, open platforms, regional cooperation, modern agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and modern services, with over 1,600 exhibitors and more than 1,300 exhibits.

Among them, the international communication exhibition area had a display area of 16,000 square meters, the largest in the history of the expo, showcasing the overall image and special products of the countries and regions involved in the BRI.

With bursts of high-quality development and by seizing on the potential of the expo, Xi'an will expand its opening-up and integrate itself even more deeply into the grand pattern of jointly building the BRI.