Zhumadian Prefecture in Central China's Henan Province would like to play a greater role in helping East China's companies participate in the country's massive western development drive.

Many enterprises, especially rural firms in East China have found the prefecture a good place to invest and seek market expansion.

"Before expanding markets further westward and committing to investing there, many rural enterprises from East China have chosen to establish production facilities in our prefecture to better prepare for further expansion to the west," said Ma Wanling, prefectural secretary of the Communist Party of China.

To satisfy the needs of investors from East China and promote economic co-operation among rural firms across the country, the prefecture, with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Henan provincial government, organized the China National East-West Economic Co-operation and Trade Fair of Rural Enterprises in 1998 and 1999.

The trade fairs produced encouraging results.

About 1,587 contracts were signed at the fairs, involving investments valued at 14.1 billion yuan (US$1.69 billion), Ma said.

In addition, the trade fairs recorded the signing of trade deals worth nearly 4 billion yuan (US$481.9 million).

Ma said that his prefecture has benefited a lot from the trade fairs because enterprises from East China have invested 3.14 billion yuan (US$378.3 million) in more than 1,600 projects in the prefecture.

In 1999, projects with investment from East China's enterprises generated output worth 6.42 billion yuan (US$773.4 million), with 616 million yuan (US$74.22 million) in profits.

Moreover, the investment has created many jobs for the people, Ma said.

To create a better environment, the prefecture has established 20 model investment areas.