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The APEC E-commerce Fair starts today in Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong Province, mainly aiming at demonstrating the latest achievements in information technology (IT) and promoting global collaboration in e-commerce.
The eye-catching event is co-sponsored by Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), China's Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Information Industry and the Shandong provincial government.
Lasting five days, the fair will attract 85 delegations and more than 30,000 exhibitors from around the world.
There are more than 40 foreign delegations, which include the APEC secretariat, the trade ministry of Viet Nam, the industrial resource ministry of the Republic of Korea (ROK), the economic development and trade ministry of Russia and the ministry of commerce of Thailand.
"The 21 members from the APEC are all sending official delegations or representatives from commercial circles to participate in the event," said Yantai Mayor Zhou Qi.
In addition, a huge number of world-famous big names and renowned domestic IT companies are taking part in the fair, such as Microsoft, LG, Alcatel, China Mobile, Lenovo, Haier and China Unicom.
Thefair has 600 standard show booths, 150 of which are for foreign exhibitors.
During the fair, the exhibitors will showcase the latest technologies and products on e-commerce application, software development, communication, computer networks, multimedia and the Internet, information security, data collection and processing, intelligence terminals, office automation and digital electronics.
It will also hold various investment and trade discussions, project promotions and technology and product press conferences.
It is expected that more than 20,000 projects will be announced to the public during the fair.
A series of high-level forums held during the event will no doubt attract the spotlight.
They include a high-level forum on e-commerce, a mayors' forum on e-government and a CEO summit.
"I believe this significant event will surely endorse techonological and economic collaboration between China and other APEC members," Zhou said.
"It has also offered a good opportunity for Yantai to march towards its goal of becoming an international metropolis."
It is the fourth time that Yantai is hosting an APEC-related conference.
The Second APEC International Trade Fair, the Second APEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Technology Exchange and Fair and the APEC Investment Mart 2001 were also held in this coastal city.
During the above three events, Yantai signed more than 500 contracts, involving a total foreign investment of more than US$4 billion and an overall export and import trade volume of more than US$3 billion.
Among the first coastal cities that adopted the opening-up policy, Yantai boasts a stable and longlasting co-operative partnership with most of the APEC members.
The Yantai Economic and Techonological Development Zone (YETDZ), together with the Yantai High-tech Industrial Zone, the APEC Technological Industrial Park and 12 export-oriented industrial processing zones, have already become a solid platform for international business exchanges.
The YETDZ now has recruited more than 600 foreign-funded enterprises, taking up an area of 30 square kilometres.
The city's gross domestic product (GDP) last year reached 131.6 billion yuan (US$15.9 billion), up 17.4 per cent from 2002.
"Yantai will spare no effort to speed up economic growth and expand co-operation with APEC members," Zhou said.
He added that top priority will be given to the construction of the manufacturing base on the Jiaodong Peninsula, the industrial belt in the north of Yantai, as well as various industrial parks.
"We will focus on the development of electronic information industry, aiming to lift the annual sales revenue of that industry to 60 billion yuan (US$7.3 billion) by 2010," Zhou added.
Consisting of 21 members, APEC boasts 55 per cent of the world's total economy and 46 per cent of the global trading volume with 45 per cent of the world's population.(CD) Edited by: Yu Liang
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