Central China Expo 2013 kicks off

Industry leaders from around the world have gathered in central China this week. China's six central provinces share the hosting duties for the annual Central China Expo. CCTV's Xia Ruixue explains how these central provinces plan to catch up with China's biggest cities.

Futuristic concepts tend to be crowd-pullers at any show, and the Central China Expo 2013 is no exception. Of all the concepts on display, one main draw is Chery's new energy concept car @Ant 2.0. It is a two-seater electric ride that can be charged wirelessly on the go. It uses cloud technology, so it's like playing video games in drive control.

"It's an energy-saving car. A mobile phone and wireless internet access can make it run. We hope it can lead to huge changes in auto-driving," Chery engineer Fang Tao said.

The annual Central China Expo is hosted in rotation between the six Chinese provinces - Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan. Over 36,000 businessmen, including senior executives of Nestle, Carrefour and other big names among the world's top 500 companies, are taking part in this year's three-day event. They brought over 5,000 projects for potential investment partners.

China set out its "Rise of central China" strategy in 2004. Alongside efforts to achieve more balanced development nationwide, a series of strategies have been carried out similar to the ones for the west and northwest of the country.

"Central China has many advantages, for instance its favorable location and the central government's support. It should not simply repeat the path of development in coastal areas, but learn from them instead," said Du Jiahao, the deputy governer of Hunan province.

Plans are to build central China into a favorable destination for industrial transfers from coastal areas during economic restructuring. It could become the major hub for a range of industries in less a decade.