Global merchants gather in Xiamen to meet the challenges of the times and share the development momentum. On the morning of September 8, the 23rd CIFIT and the 2023 International Investment Forum opened in Xiamen, a beautiful coastal city in China.
The theme of this CIFIT is “Openness and Integration Lead High-quality Development”, which will focus on global development initiatives, highlight hot spots such as digital economy, green and low-carbon, and sustainable investment, aiming at spreading China’s voice, creating an international investment public platform serving global development, and promoting countries to expand mutual openness, deepen investment cooperation, share development opportunities and create a better future.
A total of 102 countries and regions participated in the event this year. Among them, Serbia, Brazil and Qatar were invited as the guest countries, which was the largest number of guest countries. At the same time, 12 international organizations, including UNCTAD, UNIDO, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, participated in relevant activities of the conference, held forums, published reports or gave lectures, which was the largest number of international organizations in recent years.
As one of the guest countries of this CIFIT, Brazil set up a 450 m2 pavilion, led by the Brazilian Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Brazilian Embassy in China and ApexBrasil, and organized six big States of Brazil, namely Rondô nia, Alagoas, Paraná, Tocantins, Nanma and Beidahe, to participate in the exhibition.
Serbia has set up a 500 m2 pavilion to showcase their high-quality resources and development pattern, especially the latest development achievements in emerging technologies such as AI, as well as some unique technologies, high-tech and innovative achievements. It mainly introduces the 2027 World Expo, the investment map of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Serbia and other important projects.
As an old friend of CIFIT, Qatar will highlight the advantages and competitiveness of its business ecosystem this year and show its innovation, expertise and cooperation potential. The establishment of the pavilion highlights the superior investment environment, including innovative achievements in agriculture, industry and high-tech industries. During the conference, Qatar will hold many matchmaking and negotiation meetings, and a Chinese version of Qatar Investment Guide has been carefully compiled for Chinese enterprises, introducing advantageous industries and incentive policies for foreign investors.
The exhibition area of this CIFIT is 120,000 m2, which is divided into three areas: investment promotion hall, industrial innovation and development hall and project capital docking hall. There are more than 1,000 special exhibition areas, such as China exhibition area, China-Central Asian countries cooperation exhibition area, “Double Countries, Twin Parks” exhibition area and “Silk Road Shipping” exhibition area, as well as intelligent manufacturing and digital economy exhibition, new energy and green innovation exhibition, rural revitalization exhibition, sports fashion exhibition, international police and security legal science and technology exhibition area. Among them, there is a main forum, namely “Year of Investing in China” theme forum and Fujian special promotion meeting; Two parallel forums, namely China Investment Cross-border Investment High-quality Development Forum and Business Environment Forum, focusing on foreign investment and business environment construction; A high-end exchange activity “Kulangsu Forum” provided an interactive platform for investment by the international community and foreign-funded enterprises.
It is reported that this year is the first year for CIFIT to resume its “annual operation”. This CIFIT is the first year for comprehensively implementing the spirit of the 20th Party Congress, and it is also an important stop for the Ministry of Commerce to launch a series of activities of “Year of Investing in China”.