Addressing the expo's opening ceremony on Sunday, Premier Wen urged an advanced cooperation in cross-border infrastructure, including the China-Central Asia natural gas pipelines and major railway and highway projects, to accelerate the connectivity process.
Participants echoed Wen's calling, saying more roads, railways and airway routes will link Xinjiang closer to its Eurasian neighbours, bringing more trade and opportunities.
"In 2011, 73 percent of the total trade volume between Tajikistan and China came from Xinjiang," said Damdorov Kalon, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Tajikistan in China.
"We expect promising prospect of the Xinjiang-Tajikistan economic and trade cooperation," he told a forum at the expo.
The bigger role of Xinjiang came after a change of perspectives.
"As a border region, Xinjiang is far from the central and eastern part of China," Li Jingyuan, secretary general of the Secretariat of China Eurasia Expo, told a press conference at the expo.
"But on a bigger map of Eurasia, Xinjiang is located at the geological center, being China's frontier to the west."
But some experts warned that difficulties and challenges remain for Xinjiang.
"Xinjiang needs to continue its development and further optimize its economic structure," said Shi Lan, deputy head of Institute of Central Asia Studies at Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.
"With a fast development, central Asian countries, especially Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have seen drastic development," she said. "If Xinjiang does not catch up, they would probably turn to more attractive regions in east or central China for capital and technology cooperation."
Latest opening-up drive
The ongoing six-day expo, upgraded from a 19-year-old regional trade fair in 2011, attracted several heads of states and governments, participants from 55 countries and regions and six international organizations, according to organizers.
The first expo witnessed the signing of 178 contracts from domestic enterprises to invest in Xinjiang with a total value of 185 billion yuan, according to the organizers.
The upgrading of the expo is among a swathe of China's policies, including tax exemptions and construction of special economic zones, to further open up the west over the past years.
They were mapped out in 2010, by a high-level central work conference to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability of Xinjiang, which covers one-sixth of China' s landmass but is still lagging behind economically.
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