2016 Golden Autumn Economic and Trade Fair held in Zhaoqing

The annual Zhaoqing Golden Autumn Economic and Trade Fair opened in Zhaoqing New Area Business Center on last Saturday (December 3).

Lai Zehua, Zhaoqing’s municipal party secretary, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, presenting the latest updates on the construction of Zhaoqing New Area to the guests.

Some highlights of development were mentioned, including the new business center, which took merely five months to build, as well as its supporting infrastructure.

So far, Zhaoqing has attracted many high-end talents, especially PhD holders, to make contributions to the town.

Lai Zehua. Photo by APD

“If you miss the opportunity to invest in Zhaoqing, you will probably lose the best chance to witness the rapid development of a city,” Lai said.

Over 50 contract projects have been inked at the fair, amounting to more than 60.36 billion yuan (US$8.8 billion) and covering all sorts of industries such as equipment manufacturing and energy conservation.

At the same time, Zhaoqing’s talent introduction program is underway. The city has hired 13 top-level experts who will bring their specialties and project funds to Zhaoqing, so as to meet the demand of emerging industries, including biomedicine, environmental protection, etc.

As an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative and a major city in the Pearl River-Xijiang River Economic Belt, Zhaoqing has invited 14 other cities along the economic belt to co-host the first Pearl River-Xijiang River Economic Belt joint investment promotion seminar.

During the seminar, the representatives combed through 150 investment projects concerning infrastructure, industry development, cultural tourism, modern agriculture and other fields.

They also had an in-depth discussion under the theme of “developing green economy and creating a beautiful Xijiang River”. All parties reached a consensus at the end of the discussion and drafted a manifesto as a fruit of the seminar.

The manifesto says that the 15 cities along the economic belt will establish a joint control and prevention system to treat the pollution of Xijiang River. They will also limit development activities within the environmental capacity of the river basin. Furthermore, the cities will ensure river traffic safety and boost the freight traffic of the “Golden Waterway”.

(APD)