Overseas businessmen listen attentively in the fair.[Photo by Liu Yong]

CHENGDU - The Sichuan Yibin Port Economic Development Zone Industry Cooperation Fair was held in Yibin, Southwest China's Sichuan province, on Saturday, drawing 44 firms, chambers of commerce and international organizations from Japan, South Korea and other parts of China.

Some of them are Fortune 500 firms. They compared notes on development of the Yibin Port Economic Development Zone and sought business opportunities there.

On Friday afternoon, representatives of the foreign firms, chambers of commerce and international organizations visited the Yibin Port Economic Development Zone and were impressed with the port and its geographical advantage, said Xu Jin, executive deputy mayor of Yibin.

Van Ozone, chief of the Overseas Business Division of the Hitachi Zosen Corporation, a Fortune 500 firm, said he had not expected the Yibin Port to be so large.

"It is fast to transport goods from the Yibin Port to Shanghai. Waterway transportation can reduce breakage," he said.

He considered the Yibin Port very promising and said that he was looking forward to participating in the construction of Sichuan.

Located at the juncture of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, Yibin is known as the first city of the Yangtze River.

With waterway, highway, railway and air transportation, Yibin is Sichuan's southern passageway linking the outside and the sea. It is an important passageway to the Pearl River Delta and Southeast Asia.

The Yibin Port Economic Development Zone has signed more than 20 investment projects with an investment of more than 15 billion yuan since it was set up on Dec 18, 2009, Xu said.

With the theme "Opening, cooperation and creating the future together," the Fair was sponsored by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce and the Yibin municipal government.