The 1st Western China International Fair (WCIF) was jointly created by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the People's Government of Sichuan Province. It was named the Western China Forum, Product Exhibition of Coastal Foreign-funded Enterprises cum Sichuan Investment Fair and held from May 25 to 28, 2000 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Firmly grasping opportunities of the economic globalization and implementation of the western China development strategy, the 1st WCIF attracted wide attentions from the local governments, domestic enterprises and overseas investors and traders, including 138 overseas merchants from 17 countries and regions, and more than 5,000 representatives from the governments and enterprises of 16 provinces and municipalities and 21 prefectures and cities.
It has set up 1,200 international standard booths, total exhibition area 30,000 square meters. According to the incomplete statistics, 21 cities and prefectures of Sichuan Province have signed 98 investment and cooperation projects with domestic and overseas investors, totaling 13.76 billion yuan.
Tianjin, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Shenzhen, Sichuan and some cities and prefectures of Sichuan held investment promotion meetings and condition introduction separately. Sichuan investment promotion seminar especially promoted more than 1,000 key projects and investment promotion projects of backbone private enterprises. Slovenia trade delegation held an economic and trade meeting, attracting more than 200 overseas investors from over 20 countries and regions and representatives of more than 1,000 coastal enterprises. At the Western China Development International Forum, Prof. Li Yining, famous economist and deputy director of the Financial and Economic Commission of the National People's Congress and Professor of Peking University and Inoue, president of Japan-China Economic Association and other domestic and overseas experts and scholars made splendid speeches at the forum.
