The opening ceremony of the 12th Western China International Fair (WCIF) and the 2011 Western China International Sourcing Fair was held on Oct 18 in Chengdu Century City New International Exhibition Center.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, vice president of Senate and former prime minister of France, Pascal Lamy, director-general of the Word Trade Organization, and Jan Mattsson, UN assistant secretary general and executive director of the United National Office for Project Services were present at the opening ceremony and made speeches.

Yi Xiaozhun, China's ambassador to the WTO, Xiao Lisheng, vice chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xu Weihua, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and vice commissar of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps were present at the ceremony.

Wei Hong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and executive vice governor of Sichuan announced the opening of the 12th WCIF and made speeches. Vice Governor Huang Xiaoxiang presided over the opening ceremony. Huang Jianfa, member of the Standing Committee of Chengdu Municipal Party Committee and Vice Mayor Wang Zhonglin attended the opening ceremony.

Over 4,500 enterprises from 52 countries and regions, 31 Chinese provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps attended the exhibition of the 12th WCIF.

The exhibition area is 180,000 square meters, including 120,000 square meters of the exhibition area in the main venue. There are six exhibition halls and outdoor exhibition zones including the Western Cooperation Hall, International Cooperation Hall, High and New Technology Hall, International Electronic Information Hall, International Equipment Manufacturing Hall and Agriculture Industry Hall.

In the main venue, there are 3,696 enterprises from outside Sichuan that occupy 99,600 square meters of exhibition area, accounting for 80.8 percent and 83 percent of the total, respectively. More specifically, there are 2,014 foreign enterprises, accounting for 44 percent of the total and who occupy 50,400 square meters of exhibition area, accounting for 42 percent of the total. The international participation rate has greatly increased.

Compared to the 11th WCIF, the number of participating countries and regions at the 12th WCIF increased by eight, and the exhibition area and number of foreign enterprises both increased by 10 percent. Over twenty companies that belong to the Fortune Global 500 attended the exhibition, including Cisco, Dell, LG, Hyundai, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Shell and State Grid.

More than 1,300 international and domestic famous enterprises attended the exhibition, including Chia Tai Group, Nitto, Fuji Electric, CSR Corporation, Dongfang Electric Corporation, Pangang Group and Changhong.