East-West Cooperation Becoming Win-Win Deal: Analysts

After years of joint efforts by China's eastern and western regions, the economic cooperation between the country's developed and underdeveloped regions is becoming mutually beneficial.

This was observed by some local analysts attending the ongoing Talks on Trade and Economic Cooperation between China's Eastern and Western Regions.

They pointed out that at the very beginning, such cooperation was mainly enforced by the government in order to balance the economic development in different areas that have different geographic and historic conditions.

Nowadays, however, more and more companies are voluntarily joining and promoting the collaborations to make use of each others' strengths.

As a result, eastern enterprises are now flocking to the west to seek a potentially large market and raw materials, while their western counterparts are also marching into the eastern region to make better use of funds, personnel and technology.

Furthermore, cooperation between companies from the eastern and western areas have also optimized the use of each others' resources, the analysts said.

Trade Fair Closes

The fifth China East-West Cooperation and Investment Trade Fair closed here Tuesday with a total contractual trade value of 180 billion yuan (about US$21.68 billion).

A total of 1,049 domestic cooperation contracts were signed, with a combined investment of 36.877 billion yuan, and contracts of 208 foreign investment projects were signed, involving a total investment of US$2.12 billion.

The five-day trade fair also saw the signing of 37.695 billion yuan-worth of domestic trade contracts, and 489 high-tech trade agreements and foreign trade contracts totaling US$331 million.

The event attracted more than 7,000 enterprises from home and abroad, and over 100,000 Chinese and overseas businessmen.

Xi'an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province in the northwest, will also host the 2002 China East-West Cooperation and Investment Trade Fair in April of next year.






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