URUMQI — The sixth China-Eurasia Expo, a three-day international fair, opened on Aug 30 in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Under the theme of “The Belt and Road — Wide Discussion, Joint Contribution and Shared Benefits”, the expo drew participants from more than 700 domestic and foreign companies.

The exhibition area covered 70,000 square meters, with various display zones involving investment and cooperation, poverty alleviation, and featured products.

Since China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, China has deepened pragmatic cooperation with other countries under the framework of the initiative, yielding substantial achievements, Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua said at the opening ceremony.

Hu said that China is willing to expand areas of cooperation with other countries, create new trade growth points, enhance investment and industrial cooperation, and speed up interconnectivity networks through the projects in railways, highways, ports, energy, and telecom.

China will unswervingly deepen reform in all areas, expand opening-up, improve trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, said Hu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Hu encouraged enterprises in Asian and European countries to seize the opportunity and work together with their Chinese counterparts to develop more extensive and in-depth cooperation.

He voiced the central government’s support for Xinjiang to open wider to outside world and play a bigger role in China’s opening-up.

The China-Eurasia Expo, which serves as an important platform for exchanges and cooperation between different countries and regions, will conclude on Sept 1.

The fifth expo saw a total of $18 billion worth of contracts signed.