7th Silk Road International Exposition kicks off in China's Xi'an

The 7th Silk Road International Exposition (SRIE) opened Thursday in Xi'an, the capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, with high-standard opening-up and high-quality development on the agenda.

Themed "Trade Expansion, Interconnectivity, Mutual Prosperity," this year's exposition features six thematic exhibitions spread over an area of 72,000 square meters.

Since its launch, the SRIE has achieved fruitful results in building a highland of reform and opening up and promoting the large-scale development of China's western region in the new era. The previous six expositions attracted over 600,000 visitors. The total contracted investment amount in foreign projects and domestic joint projects reached $45.4 billion and over 8 trillion yuan, respectively.

During this year's SRIE, many international and domestic conferences, forums and series of activities will be held, including the opening ceremony and Silk Road Economic Belt International Cooperation Forum, guest of honor country activities, guest of honor province activities, Silk Road Expo key project promotion conferences and centralized signing ceremonies.

This year's SRIE has added, for the first time, an exhibition area for the five Central Asian countries, an exhibition area for international friendly cities in Shaanxi Province, an exhibition area for major foreign cooperation projects, and a South Korean commodity exhibition area at the international exchange exhibition.

Jointly hosted by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, the exposition goes on until November 20.