Chongqing- With the production line operating and transport vehicles running, the packaging materials are finally produced, packed, loaded, and directly exported via the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC). This critical project, signed at the first Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade (WCIFIT), has become the base with the largest single set production capacity in the global industry, with an annual output value of more than 10 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars).

Many projects signed at the WCIFIT are beginning to bear fruit. Data shows that 841 projects were signed in the first three sessions with a contract value of 1417.27 billion yuan. How can WCIFIT have such a remarkable performance, and how does this national and international platform communicate with the world and usher in western opportunities?

Experts said it is necessary to seize the opportunity of "bringing in" and "stepping out." 

Bringing 300 Fortune 500 enterprises 

As one of the listed enterprises among the top 500 private enterprises in China, Wankai New Materials Co., Ltd signed a contract with Chongqing Fuling for a 3.6 billion yuan investment project on building a food-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) macromolecule new material base with an annual output of 1.2 million tons four years ago. The project is constructed in two phases, with the expected annual output value exceeding 10 billion yuan.

This heavyweight project is one of over 800 introduced projects of the WCIFIT. In addition to a series of projects, WCIFIT brings in many celebrities with dignitaries, senior officials from various countries, and guests from more than 300 enterprises listed on the Fortune Global 500.

"WCIFIT is both a national and an international exhibition platform," said Ding Yao, chief economist of Chongqing Comprehensive Economic Research Institute. "The fair aggregates rich elements in western China and promotes its overall image."

The WCIFIT has a close relationship with three national strategies: the western development driven, the ILSTC, and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, said Ma Xiaoyan, director of the Institute of International Economy, Trade and Logistics of the Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences. Ma said that the opportunities released by multiple national strategies make WCIFIT gather global resources and bring in more development elements.

Turning to the frontier of opening-up

The Fuling Wankai special train of the ILSTC was launched in Fuling West on November 25 last year, opening up its passage from western China to the world with its business covering the Southeast Asian and European markets.

"Products are now convenient to export with shorter logistics time, lower capital costs, and larger market," said the responsible person of the firm. 

The example of Wankai mirrors Chongqing's transformation from the inland hinterland to the frontier of opening-up. With ILSTC playing its leading role, WCIFIT and other open platforms of Chongqing should integrate resources and make concerted efforts, turning the policy resources into development advantages, said Ma. 

Chongqing is a national central city, an international consumption center city, west and central region international exchange center, and a Comprehensive Pilot for Expanding the Opening-up of the Service Industry approved by the country.

"The holding of WCIFIT in Chongqing can amplify the opening-up function of these platforms to a greater extent, and it can increase domestic and international investment, trade, industrial cooperation, and cultural exchange opportunities," said Ding. He thinks that on the way moving forward hand in hand with the world, the WCIFIT has gradually become a new window for the opening-up of western China and a pivot platform for western enterprises to accelerate the deep integration into the global industrial pattern.

(Ge Rongchen, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)