The fair, held annually in the city in East China's Fujian Province, attracts senior Chinese, foreign government and company officials as well as well-known economists to its international investment seminar each year.

Commerce officials said they have invited high-level officials but declined to say who might attend.

The ministry said it had established an investment promotion agency to organize the fair.

Agency Director Liu Yajun said the new body reflected changes in administrative functions.

The agency came from the ministry's Department of Foreign Investment Administration and will serve as an intermediary.

Its major responsibilities include organizing investment fairs like CIFIT on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce, communicating with international organizations and hosting other promotional activities for investments in China.

It has a guide to investment on its website www.fdi.gov.cn and handles complaints from foreign investors in China.

With the founding of the investment promotion agency, the ministry's Department of Foreign Investment Administration will be freed from these responsibilities and focus on policy-making and researching foreign investment-related topics.

Huang Ling, vice-mayor of Xiamen, said the SARS outbreak in mid-April had delayed some of the fair's overseas promotions, with many overseas visitors adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

But she said international investors and organizations have still shown great interest in the fair. The city is now free of SARS and has taken precautions against the disease' recurrence.

(China Daily June 20, 2003)