The 2020 CIFIT will be moved online for the first time since its inception in 1997, according to the second preparatory meeting held in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on July 2.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from 30 provincial governments, municipal governments, and municipalities, all of whom expressed confidence in the fair.

The 2020 CIFIT will be held online from Sept 8 to 11 in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province.

The 2020 CIFIT's organizing committee will launch a "Cloud CIFIT" platform in collaboration with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group on the first day of the event, enabling participants to showcase their products, make negotiations, sign agreements, and place orders online.

Shanxi, the 2020 CIFIT's guest province of honor, and Yangcheng, a county in Shanxi, will use the event to attract investment this year and will participate in both online and offline activities.

The Philippines, the 2020 CIFIT’s guest country of honor, will organize a series of activities and send officials from its embassy and consulates in China to attend the event's promotional meetings in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

The organizing committee will invite roughly 40 countries and regions to attend the online fair this year.

The 2020 CIFIT plans to hold more than 10 high-end forums and authoritative information releases, including the International Investment Forum (IIF), Industrial Internet Innovative Development Conference, and China International Conference on Green Innovative Development, as well as the releases of the World Investment Report (Chinese Version) and Africa Investment Report at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The IIF and its series of forums will focus on world investment trends, the effect of the Belt and Road Initiative on the global economy, and the influence of anti-globalization trends on the global economy in an effort to shore up the confidence of investors and explore global economic trends in the post-pandemic era.