A regional US chamber of commerce has high hopes for the China International Fair for Investment & Trade, which kicks off on Sept 8 in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province.

Harley Seyedin, president of AmCham South China, said he expects member companies to sign $3 billion worth of agreements at this year's event.

The agreements signed last year had a combined value of more than $2 billion, with those from the company Air Products and Chemicals accounting for nearly half of the total, he said.

He said this year's goal will be easily realized because the chamber's delegation to CIFIT this year is larger than ever. It numbers more than 300 people, including 108 from the Association to Invest in the US.

Also, the steadily improving business environment in the region is believed to be a contributing factor.

Seyedin said that 90 of member companies polled this year rated the local business environment as "good, great or excellent".

The result was based on a survey of roughly 500 of its member companies earlier this year, he said.

Established in 1995, the chamber of commerce has around 2,000 corporate and individual members, most of which come from the US.

Seyedin said their satisfaction with local business environment and optimism about the market are reasons why their investments totaled $1.4 billion in 2012, with another $1 billion expected to be invested this year.

Now, 80.6 percent of those companies are product and service providers, and he suggested they shift their focus to smaller cities instead of targeting only the big cities in which they have been successful in the past.

"Within two hours' drive from major first- or second-tier cities on the eastern or southern coast - say Shanghai or Guangzhou - there are more than 300 third-, fourth-, or even fifth-tier cities, which account for 42.5 percent of China's GDP."

He added that they offer "enormous, unlimited" potential if US companies set up their R&D facilities to meet local market demand rather than simply bringing in products existing in Western markets.

Seyedin added that it is also a good time for Chinese companies to invest in the US.

"The best time to invest in a country is when that country is undergoing economic recovery" because investors can reach their goals at a much lower price than when the economy has full recovered, he said.

Seyedin said a lot of companies in the US are now in need of capital, especially small and medium-sized ones, adding it is a great opportunity for Chinese companies to invest in them because they account for a vast majority of new technologies and innovations in the US.

He added that 100-plus delegates from the Association to Invest in the US and more than 30 exhibitors offer a wide range of projects to potential Chinese investors at the CIFIT.

Having attended the CIFIT since 2002, Seyedin said the annual event has become something really global.

"Before 2008, it was totally focused on foreign investors in China, but that has changed as China and Chinese companies have greater capabilities to invest overseas."

"It is not China and the US, not just foreign and China. It is country to country. More than 130 countries are represented here at the CIFIT," Seyedin said.

"We have to keep in mind that it is one of the best, the broadest, and the largest platforms in the world."

lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn

Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China, talks with a China Daily reporter after a press conference in Xiamen. Zou Zhongpin / China Daily

(China Daily 09/08/2013 page17)