NW city to display Muslim food and commodities

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By Cai Muyuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-09 14:14

NW city to display Muslim food and commodities
Zhao Yongqing, vice-mayor of Wuzhong, delivers a speech at a press conference on July 6. [chinadaily.com.cn]

The Second Muslim Commercial Fair will be held in Wuzhong of central Ningxia Hui autonomous region from Aug 17 to 19, said Zhao Yongqing, vice-mayor of the city at a press conference on July 6.

In a bid to promote the economic development of cities along the Yellow River, the fair will feature the Ningxia-Arab Economic and Trade Development Seminar, China (Wuzhong) Muslim Food Festival, China (Wuzhong) Hui Cultural Travel Festival and China (Wuzhong) Hui Medicine Industry Development Forum. Delegations from all over China and Arab countries will be invited.

With a Muslim population of 685,800, accounting for more than half of the city's total, Wuzhong has been crowned "Chinese halal food and Muslim commodity industrial base" and "town of Chinese Hui architectural culture" in recent years. This gives Wuzhong the natural advantage to host such an event, said Zhao.

The First Hui Commercial Fair attracted officials, businesspeople, industrialists and economists from more than 40 countries and regions and gained international attention from Thailand, Iran and Kuwait. As the production of halal food and Muslim commodities is industrialized in Ningxia, the coming fair will continue attracting investment and enhancing cooperation of different regions and will make Wuzhong better known to the outside world, said Zhao.

Aiming to develop into the second-largest city in Ningxia, Wuzhong has set an ambitious development strategy to underpin its pillar industries besides Muslim food and commodities, such as power, energy resources, metallurgy and tourism.

From 2005 to 2008, Wuzhong attracted foreign investment worth 20 billion yuan ($2.93 billion) and achieved an annual growth rate of 40 percent.

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