The three-day West China Fair for Attracting Overseas Investment opened Saturday in Xi'an, the capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The fair has attracted more than 1,000 businessmen from both at home and abroad, and 145 overseas-funded enterprises in China and noted enterprises from other countries and regions, including many multinational corporations such as IBM, Siemens, Kodak and Toshiba.

Some official and semi-official organizations for the promotion of investment, such as the International Financial Corporation, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Trade Development Council of Singapore have also sent delegations to the fair.

Projects publicized at the fair requiring investment relate to infrastructure and urban construction, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, high-tech industries, electrical and mechanical and information systems, medicine, bio-engineering, the service trades, mineral exploitation and tourism.

Zhou Ming, vice-chairman of the China Association of Foreign- funded Enterprises (CAFE), said that the fair is designed to serve as a bridge for capital, technologies, personnel and commodities from both at home and abroad to enter the western region of China, and also for enterprises in western China to contact the world economy, so as to realize mutual benefits and common development.

At the fair will be held a seminar for the international merger and regrouping of property and a seminar on the development of and challenges facing the traditional Chinese medicine and natural foods industry following China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

The current fair is sponsored by the CAFE and the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government.