Chengdu is poised to become a driver of western China's development as more and more domestic and foreign companies move faster to make investments there, Ge Honglin, mayor of the city, said on Sunday.

Ge's remarks came during the Chengdu Investment Presentation and Project Signing Ceremony, which was held in Beijing by the Chengdu city government on Sunday. Many State-owned enterprises and private companies used the event as an opportunity to announce their investment plans for the city.

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, is an economic center in China's western region and has the most financial institutions and complete services for economic development in the region.

The total value of the investments announced at the ceremony was 18.14 billion yuan ($2.9 billion), and 17 projects were agreed to on Sunday. Among those, four involved companies on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies by revenue, four involved modern manufacturing, eight involved modern agriculture and one involved the modern agriculture business.

Ge said Chengdu is striving to do more to protect intellectual property, build infrastructure and develop a service industry. Those steps are meant to establish better conditions for investment and services for investors from home and abroad.

According to the Chengdu Investment Promotion Commission, China Electronics, the largest State-owned IT company in the country, will invest 6 billion yuan to establish the China Electronics western industrial park in Chengdu.

Also included are China National Agricultural Development Group's food processing project, Beijing Four Seasons Investment's biopharmaceutical products project, Palm Spring's Huanglongxi movie studio project and Lenovo's regional settlement center project.

During a part of the ceremony to promote investments, China Communications Construction, a transportation infrastructure contractor, said it plans to work on transportation construction in Chengdu and a project to reconstruct the city's northern area, doing so through both contracting and investing.

Covering 212 square kilometers, the project is aimed at improving the city's road system, old infrastructure, industry and the environment in its northern part.

China Energy Conservation & Environmental Protection Group will invest more to establish a refuse treatment plant in Chengdu, the company said.

And Chengdu's Tianfu New Area has been attracting attention from domestic and foreign investors, many of whom see merit in its plan to make Tianfu into a new urban area dedicated largely to modern manufacturing.

Texas Instruments, a maker of analog circuit components and semiconductors, signed an agreement with the Chengdu Tianfu Software Park in October to establish research and development and sales centers in the park.

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