Song Defu, secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Fujian Provincial Committee, extends congratulations on the Seventh CIFIT:
Firstly, congratulations on the ceremonious opening of the Seventh China International Fair for Investment and Trade and a warm welcome to distinguished guests and friends from home and abroad.
Opening up to the world is China’s long-term basic policy.
Our practice and history have demonstrated that opening up makes the nation prosperous and isolation makes it weak and vulnerable.
Under such new circumstances as accelerated globalization and China becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, it becomes the best choice for us to open upwider to the world. We must remain integrated with the rest of the world in a proactive manner, and faithfully enforce the combined strategies of attracting overseas investments and going global. We must get more involved in international economic co-operation and exchanges across a greater range, wider fields and at higher levels, making full use of domestic and foreign markets
and resources. Only in this way can we attain an advantageous position in international competition and lay a solid foundation for the goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way.
CIFIT is China’s only national event dedicated to the promotion of international investment. Its first six sessions have contributed significantly to the opening-up drive inFujian, and facilitated the
implementation of the national opening-up policy and the work of utilizing foreign funds nationwide. It has become an efficient channel for international capital to enter China and an important bridge for Chinese enterprises to enter the world market.
This session is the first large national event featuring economic and trade activities since China triumphed over SARS. It is also a good opportunity for our province to display a new image in our opening up effort toward further development. We shall sum up the past experiences and, under the direction of the Ministry of Commerce, spare no effort to do a good job in a warm, well-rounded and down-toearth manner while ensuring security, in a bid to make suchtwo-way investment promotion
greater, wider and more substantive.
To be greater is to attract a greater amount of foreign investment, to enable a greater number of domestic enterprises to go global, and to provide greater opportunities for domestic and overseas investors and business people.
To be wider is to access a wider source of foreign capital, to expand into wider areas for foreign investment, and to achieve a wider range of co-operation and exchange between domestic and foreign businesses.
To be more substantive is to attach more importance to the fair’s substantive results and to exert more influence on the world by reaching a greater success. At the same time, we are pushing for this event to become an international investment expo with concerted efforts from central government bodies and other provinces and
municipalities.
I believe the Seventh CIFIT will be a complete triumph and wish all friends good health and successful businesses negotiations during their stay in Fujian.