Li Jianyi, Party secretary of Shaanxi Conference and Exhibition Center, introduces information on the 3rd Silk Road International Exposition. [Photo/shaanxi.gov.cn]

A Silk Road expo will be held in May in Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi province in Northwest China, the eastern end of the ancient trans-Asian trade routes, provincial authorities announced on March 28. The 3rd Silk Road International Exposition, or the 22nd Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China, will be held from May 11 to 15. The expo, themed "New Age, New Pattern, New Development", is designed to promote international cooperation between countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and demonstrate China's development in past 40 years since the implementation of reform and opening-up policy.

The expo will include five exhibition halls – one cooperation and exchange hall, four industrial halls and one featured products hall. Approximately 40 forums and meetings will be held to discuss how to improve economic cooperation, expand cultural exchanges, promote people-to-people contacts, and bring convenience for trade and investment along the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The 15 major meetings will engage in the fields of finance, business, archaeology, education, and big data. They will also arrange eight investment and trade activities, such as an industrial cooperation and communication meeting and an innovation and entrepreneurship conference. Britain and Malaysia have been confirmed as the guest countries of honor, Guizhou province as the guest province of honor and Tianjin as the guest city of honor. Government officials from China and guest countries of honor will make speeches at the theme forum – Silk Road Economic Belt International Cooperation Forum.

In recent years, the expo has seen rapid development. Each year, more than 2,000 foreign guests from 80 countries were attracted to the expo. As of now, approximately 600,000 domestic merchants and enterprises brought 25,000 featured products to demonstrate and sell at the expo. At the expo held in 2017, contracts of foreign-invested projects were signed at the value of $5.72 billion; the contracts of domestic projects brought in an investment of more than 1.36 trillion yuan ($213.77 billion), and the value of high-tech involved contracts were 11.48 billion yuan.

The expo will be jointly hosted by National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, State Administration of Market Regulation, and Shaanxi Provincial Government.

Shaanxi Provincial Government holds news conference on March 28 to announce that Xi'an will play host to the 3rd Silk Road International Exposition from May 11 to 15. [Photo/shaanxi.gov.cn]

Information on exhibition halls

Cooperation and Communication Hall, located at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center Hall A, will put on special exhibitions for the guest countries, provinces and cities of honor, and arrange product promotion and project release conferences, in the hope of creating an international cooperation platform for countries along the Belt and Road.

No 1 Industrial Hall, located at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center Hall B1, will exhibit the latest technologies and products from the fields of avionics, satellite navigation and the application of Beidou satellite, and aviation precise manufacturing and equipment, aiming to speed up the development of aerospace industry in China and promote international cooperation and communication in aerospace technologies.

No 2 Industrial Hall, located at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center Hall B2, will exhibit the latest technologies and products from the fields of intelligent manufacturing, industrial robots, artificial intelligence, high-end numerically-controlled machine tool, rail traffic, laser products and high-end equipment, in an effort to promote the integration of modern manufacturing industries with big data, artificial intelligent and the real economy.

No 3 Industrial Hall, located at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center Hall B3, will mainly display energy-saving technologies and the hot products and technologies related to environmental protection, hoping to promote green development model and green lifestyle and set up a market-oriented innovation system for green technology.

No 4 Industrial Hall, located at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center Hall B4, will exhibit the latest technologies and products of new material industry, the fifth generation of mobile communication technology, and biotechnology, in order to promote the communication and cooperation of technology-related projects.

Featured Products Hall, located at Xi'an Greenland Pico International Convention and Exhibition Center Hall 1 to 4, will mainly exhibit and sell signature products from countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and specialties from different provinces and cities in China, in an effort to promote the trade communication between countries along the Silk Road in modern times.