Sichuan hoping for increase in investment

Senior government officials from Southwest China's Sichuan Province said Thursday that they aim to attract more investment from the world's 500 largest enterprises following a forum to be held in provincial capital Chengdu next week.

The Fortune Global Forum, which is organized by the US magazine Fortune, will be held in Chengdu on June 6-8.

It has so far attracted a record 600 guests, including executives from the world's top 500 enterprises, government officials and scholars, Andrew Serwer, managing editor of Fortune, told a media briefing in Beijing Thursday.

This will be the fourth time the magazine has held its annual Fortune Global Forum in China. Premier Li Keqiang will hold a seminar in Beijing with executives of the multinationals that will attend the forum, and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli will give a speech during the forum on June 6.

The forum will play a significant role in the development and opening up of Sichuan's economy, Gan Lin, vice governor of Sichuan Province, said at the briefing.

"The forum will help increase Sichuan and Chengdu's international influence, and we hope the forum will bring us more investment from the world's 500 largest enterprises," he said.

So far, 238 of the world's 500 largest enterprises have set up businesses in Chengdu and helped boost the city's GDP, which ranked third in 2012 among the mainland's municipalities and cities, Ge Honglin, mayor of Chengdu, told reporters Thursday.

A decade after China adopted a strategy to develop its western regions, Chengdu has developed into a major global manufacturing base for IT products.

According to Ge, half of the world's laptop chips were manufactured in the city last year. He estimates the city's IT industry will be worth 400 billion yuan ($65.2 billion) this year.

"We have encouraged local private enterprises, especially those in the IT industry, to cooperate with multinationals that have a foothold in the city," Ge noted.