_News Center_China International Fair for Investment & Trade (CIFIT)

Despite the decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) over the past year, participants at the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in Xiamen this week remained upbeat about future deals with overseas companies.
The fair, held annually in Southeast China's Fujian Province since 1997, is a platform for domestic companies to attract investment from abroad.
FDI has declined for 10 consecutive months in the aftermath of the global financial meltdown, said Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce, at CIFIT's International Investment Forum on Tuesday.
In the first seven months, foreign-invested enterprises newly approved for establishment numbered slightly over 120,000, down 27.4% year-on-year. Utilized FDI amounted to $48.4 billion, plunging 20.4 percent compared with the same period of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
Sponsored by MOFCOM, this year's CIFIT has investment and trade promotion agencies and business delegations from 83 countries and regions, and an unprecedented 13,000 foreign visitors, according to the organizer.
"This is the fourth time that we have come to CIFIT. This year, there are more booths and visitors than last year," said Zhang Yiwei, project manager at Flanders Investment & Trade, a government agency for trade and investment promotion in Flanders, North Belgium.
Zhang noted that in recent years more Chinese businesses are setting up offices in Europe in order to provide better after-sales services to their customers.
At one of the foreign booths, Bulewa Qupe, a representative for Buntu Fishing, told the Global Times that she expected to sign a contract worth 17 million yuan ($2.5 million) with a Beijing investor for a fishing farm in South Africa. Another deal worth 4.5 million yuan ($658,858) on a tourism project in South Africa remains open.
Lu Hongshan, international project manager at Sigma International, a member of the US-China Business & Culture Association, said that their target customers are individuals and business people hoping to study or do business in North America and Asia. He is quite optimistic about his company's prospects even though their business has dropped since the recession hit.
Local governments from around the country send delegations to CIFIT to promote new industries and products from their provinces.
Locomotive models and crafts are on display at the Shanxi Province booth. "Shanxi is trying to transform itself from a province reliant on the heavily-polluting coal-mining industry to one with green tourism and equipment manufacturing," Ma Xizhu, a senior engineer at Datong Electronic Locomotive Co, told the Global Times.
"We have already inked nine deals with a total value of 8 billion yuan ($1.17 billion), and we expect more to come," said Xie Zhiyong, director at the Investment Office of Changjiang County, Hainan Province.
CIFIT will last until September 11.