The 12th Western China International Fair (WCIF) has achieved great results in promoting investment, with new breakthroughs in signed contracts, according to the Sichuan Provincial Investment Promotion Bureau on Nov 7.

Statistics show that 1,279 projects, with a total of 682.28 billion yuan investment, were signed at the WCIF. They accounted for 72.2 percent of total signed contracts, an increase of 28.2 percent compared to the previous WCIF.

Sichuan province summarized the following features of contracts signed at the 12th WCIF.

Firstly, projects involved big investment scales, indicating big and competitive companies. The signed contracts of the province averaged 530 million yuan for each project, 90 million yuan more than the last session. Among them, the province attracted 173 projects from other parts of the country, with more than one billion yuan for each project. They amounted to 330.48 billion yuan, with 54.4 percent of the total contracts signed by Sichuan province with Chinese partners. These were 1.6 percent higher than the last session.

Sichuan also attracted 37 foreign investment projects, with more than 100 million U.S. dollars for each project. They were valued at 9.26 billion US dollars, 79.3 percent of total signed contracts of the province with foreign partners. The value was 9.4 percentage points higher than the last session.

Secondly, there were large numbers of major investment projects to stimulate industrial development in the province. The high-tech projects were valued at 119.9 billion yuan, accounting for 17.6 percent of the signed contracts in Sichuan province. They were 4.4 percentage points higher than the last session. They ranked the second among all sorts of signed contracts of the province. The equipment manufacturing sector, strategically emerging sector, and modern service sector also attracted a large group of major projects with big investment, industrial promotion capacity and strong industrial connections.

Thirdly, the investors came from concentrated areas, showing a trend of Chinese investment and foreign investment shifting to the west. The sources of Chinese investment projects show that the top five investing provinces and municipalities were Guangdong, Beijing, Chongqing, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The parties signed a total of 506.9 billion yuan with Sichuan province, 74.3 percent of the gross contracts that Sichuan signed with other parts of the country. The top five investing regions and countries were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and the United States. They amounted to 9.484 billion U.S. dollars, 81.2 percent of the total foreign investment projects the province signed with overseas partners.

Fourthly, the projects showed concentrated destinations, indicating a industrial cluster development trend. The Chengdu economic zone, comprising of Chengdu, Meishan, Ziyang, Mianyang and Deyang, had 266.9 billion yuan signed investment. They accounted for 39.1 percent of the province’s total signed contracts. Chengdu city alone had 111.7 billion yuan signed contracts. Signed projects also went to industrial parks. The contracts signed by the cities and prefectures mainly accord with the orientations of their functional zones and plans for key industrial development.

Preliminary analyses show that 918 signed contracts settled down in industrial parks, 71.8 percent of the signed contracts in Sichuan province. They totaled 437.19 billion yuan in investment.

Yi Jun, deputy director of Sichuan provincial investment promotion bureau, said that the fruitful results at the WCIF show that Chinese and foreign investors approve the development potential and investment opportunities of west China.

It demonstrated the role of WCIF as a window for opening up west China and the most important platform to set up an image. The Fair also further consolidated the role of Sichuan as a favored destination for domestic and international investors.

In the next move, the bureau will continue working to implement cooperative results, deepen efforts to explore investor and project resources, and optimize industrial structures and qualities of projects.