China is to hold an exhibition in October to display the resources in poor regions to attract investment in an effort to help reduce the country's poverty.

The exhibition, the first of its kind in China, is scheduled to be held between October 16 and 18 in Dalian, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, said Zhang Ruming, president of the Liaoning branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), at a press conference in Beijing Wednesday.

"It aims to offer a platform for poor regions to communicate and interact with relatively developed regions face-to-face, through display of resources, introduction of investment, the transfer of new high technologies, and other means," said Zhang.

The exhibition, approved by the Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, China's cabinet, will be jointly sponsored by the China Council Promotion Area Development, CCPIT Liaoning branch, the Liaoning provincial government and Dalian municipal government.

The exhibition is to display the agricultural, economic, cultural and tourism resources and about 1,000 projects ripe for investment, according to Zhang.

Attendees at the exhibition will include leading state-owned and private businesses from relatively developed eastern China areas, entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as business people from foreign countries including Japan, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy and Hungary.

During the exhibition, a forum will be held to mark the "International Day for the Eradication of Poverty" on October 17 and to discuss the tasks, goals and measures for reducing poverty in next five years.

Statistics show that China's poor population decreased from 250 million in 1978 to 26.1 million at the end of last year.

Wang Guoliang, deputy director of the Office of the Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, cited the exhibition as "a beneficial trial."

"It will exert an extensive, positive influence on boosting the economic development of the poor regions," he said.