HEFEI — The fourth World Manufacturing Convention kicked off on Nov 19 in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province.

The four-day event, themed "innovation-driven, digitally empowered: global manufacturing industry aligned for high-quality growth," aims to promote high-quality manufacturing and deepen exchanges between China and the rest of the world.

The convention, covering an area of more than 43,000 square meters, features various industrial seminars, business matchmaking events, and exhibitions of new energy vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, imported products, among others.

It attracted 800 guests including foreign diplomats, officials of relevant international organizations, and senior managers from Global Fortune 500 companies, according to the organizing committee.

As the event's guest of honor, the Republic of Korea has set up a national pavilion at the convention and is scheduled to organize a number of cooperation and exchange activities.

The convention offers a broad platform for deeper cooperation in global manufacturing and sustainable development, said Christian Wulff, global chairman of the Global Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises.

The convention focuses on cutting-edge trends, displays development achievements, and explores a new path of high-quality manufacturing, which is very suitable for the needs of the current situation, said Xin Guobin, vice-minister of industry and information technology, adding that it will play a positive role in promoting high-quality development of manufacturing.

A total of 1,752 projects with investments of 1.8 trillion yuan (around $282 billion) were signed at the previous three conventions, of which more than 80 percent had kicked off construction by the end of October 2021.