6th Beijing International Finance Expo Kicks off

Thursday saw the start of the Sixth International Finance Expo at Beijing's huge Exhibition Centre in the west of the city. The event is one of the most prestigious economic conferences in the country and attracts thousands of visitors.

CRI's Dominic Swire braved the crowds and the noise to bring us this report.

Giant video screens flash and loudspeakers pump out promotional messages as hundreds of smartly dressed business people mill around. This is Beijing's huge Exhibition Centre, which is playing host to the Sixth International Finance Expo. Exhibitors range from banks and investment funds to local governments in search of capital.

One of them is Chen Qun from the Financial Service Office of Chaoyang district in Beijing, right at the heart of the city's central business district. Standing next to a model of Beijing's business centre, which includes the city's future tallest building; he explains how the financial service sector is becoming increasingly important for the Chinese capital.

" Beijing is developing every year and the financial industry is becoming more and more important… More and more people are realizing that the financial industry will be the driving force for society to keep going. So I think this is the most important reason for organizing this kind of exhibition. "

Although most of the exhibitors at the event were Chinese there were some foreign representatives.

" We're looking to promote investment in the United States, specifically Clark County, Las Vegas, Nevada. "

Anthony Desa is from a US property development firm. His company is hoping to attract Chinese people looking to acquire a green card to live in the United States. But it doesn't come cheap.

" People want to emigrate to the United States and the easiest way to do it is to invest 500,000 dollars into a project, in return they will get residency in the United States. "

The conference, which will last for the next few days, also includes a number of panel discussions on the subject of promoting China's economy within a global context. If the number of people attracted to this event is anything to go by, it seems likely that the Sixth Beijing International Financial Expo is going to be a big success.

For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.