The 2020 China International Fair for Investment & Trade (CIFIT) and the Belt and Road Investment Congress concluded on Friday in Xiamen with total agreed investments of more than 800 billion yuan (about 117 billion U.S. dollars).

The four-day event attracted 1,018 business groups seeking cooperation and investment opportunities.

More than 2,300 cooperation agreements were signed at this year's CIFIT, which is held annually in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province.

Covering an area of 110,000 square meters and with two exhibition pavilions promoting investment and industry, the physical exhibition area attracted business people from 42 countries and regions, including Germany, Britain, and Japan.

With the aid of cloud services from China's tech giant Alibaba, an online fair was also held, with over 16,000 investment promotion projects posted online, and 18 video conferences held during the fair.

The CIFIT takes place every September in Xiamen and aims to promote two-way trade and investment between China and the rest of the world.

Boost for BRI Economies

The CIFIT has provided a much-needed impetus for economies along the Belt and Road against the backdrop of COVID-19.

The Port of Gdansk, Poland's biggest seaport, was received as the 183rd member of the Silk Road Maritime during the fair.

Jointly initiated by the Xiamen Port Holding Group and dozens of shipping companies from home and abroad, the shipping consortium is aimed at boosting trade links among BRI countries and regions.

"Our port is the port of the Belt and Road. We are the last stop of the sea route from China to Europe, and Poland is the gate to the EU for China's freight trains," said Mateusz Dawidowski, the chief representative of the port's China representative office. "We are more than happy to be part of the alliance, and we hope to increase our role in it."

Dawidowski said the port was recovering from the shockwave of the pandemic, which so far has led to a 7-percent decline in throughput in the first half of this year, and it pinned high expectations on its cooperation with China to boost recovery.

"Our companies import a lot from China and export a lot to China. So the Silk Road Maritime will accelerate our recovery," he said. "We do hope that at the end of this year we will reach the same level as last year."

A long-time partner of Xiamen port, the shipping giant Maersk has 13 shipping services to and from Xiamen every week.

"We have seen a stronger than expected recovery in the Chinese economy," said Jens Eskelund, managing director of Maersk China Ltd., noting that the company has even seen good growth during the pandemic, thanks to its partnership with China.

Mbelwa Kairuki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Republic of Tanzania, said the pandemic harmed the global economy, but in Tanzania, infrastructure projects like roads and airports under construction were not affected due to China's anti-epidemic measures.

"China is an engine of the global economy. International events like this enable the whole world to engage more with each other. It is through cooperation that we can overcome the difficulties of the economic downturn."

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