The 2016 Silk Road International Expo and the 20th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade (WCIFIT) opened today. The event is being held simultaneously across five venues: the Qujiang International Convention and Exhibition Center, the Greenland Pico International Convention and Exhibition Center, Tang West Market, China South City, and the Shaanxi Science and Technology Resource Coordination Center. South Korea and Kazakhstan serve as the guest countries of honor, while the Tibet Autonomous Region and Fujian Province are the guest provinces (regions) of honor. Dignitaries and business representatives from 37 countries and regions worldwide have gathered in Xi'an alongside delegations from 27 domestic provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, a Hong Kong economic and trade delegation, and 13 sub-delegations from within Shaanxi Province to foster shared development. Following two decades of innovation and growth, and upon official approval, the event has been renamed the "Silk Road International Expo and Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade," evolving from a domestic exhibition into a comprehensive event with international influence.
On the morning of May 13, the Science and Technology Achievements Exhibition—part of the 2016 Silk Road International Expo and the 20th China East-West Cooperation and Investment & Trade Fair—opened at the Shaanxi Science and Technology Resource Coordination Center. The launch ceremonies for the 2016 Science and Technology Week and the 5th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Shaanxi Division) were held concurrently at the opening event.
The exhibition, themed "Building New Platforms, Promoting New Development," aims to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee. It seeks to leverage the event as a platform for exchange and cooperation, establish a new starting point for scientific and technological collaboration along the Silk Road Economic Belt, expand exchanges with countries along the Silk Road and other Chinese provinces, showcase Shaanxi's scientific and technological prowess, foster regional cooperation, and promote the commercialization of research findings.
The exhibition features a mix of custom-designed booths and standard stands, utilizing display panels, physical objects, models, text, images, videos, and multimedia presentations. It comprehensively showcases projects that have won national and provincial science and technology awards, major pilot-scale projects, and winners of innovation and entrepreneurship competitions. Also on display are new achievements, technologies, and products from Shaanxi in sectors such as equipment manufacturing, modern agriculture, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, biomedicine, and electronic information, alongside domestic and international scientific achievements organized by the National Technology Transfer and Commercialization Promotion Alliance, provinces along the Silk Road and across China's eastern, central, and western regions, and Shaanxi's technology transfer demonstration institutions. Our company’s delegation attracted numerous visitors with our flagship product, the RDSbodyscan high-speed body scanning system.
During the launch ceremony, officials from the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology read the official approval and unveiled the plaque for the National Technology Transfer Northwest Center, while Shaanxi provincial leaders unveiled the plaque for the Shaanxi Entrepreneurship College. As a key component of the national "2+N" technology transfer system, the National Technology Transfer Northwest Center has been established in Shaanxi through the active efforts of the provincial Party committee and government; it is set to become a hub for technology transfer services in the Northwest region and a vital pillar for the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.
According to the organizing committee of the 2016 Silk Road International Expo and the 20th China East-West Cooperation and Investment & Trade Fair, and in accordance with the committee's unified arrangements, the event will be open exclusively to professional attendees for investment negotiations on May 13; no tickets will be sold to the general public on that day.
The exhibition of scientific and technological achievements runs for five days and will conclude on May 17.
