The 13th China Urumqi Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Fair opened Wednesday in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"The fair is the biggest international one in northwest China," said Zhang Ye, deputy director of the fair's leading committee, at the opening ceremony. "It connects markets of Russia, central Asia and western China as a bridge, providing business opportunities for the development of China's western areas."

The first Urumqi trade fair took place in 1992 to display new products, technology and projects, offer import and export programs and promote economic and technical cooperation.

"So far, it has attracted business people from more than 70 countries and regions, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrghystan, along with some 10,000 businesses from 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of China, to attend the fair over the past years," said Zhang, also director of Xinjiang's foreign trade and economic department.

The past 12 fairs witnessed the signing of foreign trade contracts worth about 18 billion US dollars and a domestic trade of nearly 183 billion yuan (22 billion US dollars).

So far, Xinjiang has established an economic and trade relationship with more than 30 countries and regions, and had a total trade volume of 4.77 billion US dollars last year, up 77.3 percent over the previous year.

"The Urumqi trade fair has contributed a lot to Xinjiang's trade cooperation and economic exchanges with other provinces of China and other countries as well," Zhang said. "It not only boosted the region's economic growth, but also promoted the development of other central and west Asian countries."

Source: Xinhua