The opening ceremony of the China Hi-Tech Fair 2010 is held at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center on Nov 16. The event will go until Nov 21. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

This year's China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF), which kicked off on Nov 16 and will go until Nov 21, is seeing companies focus more on exhibiting environment-friendly technologies as China steps up efforts to promote a "low-carbon" economy and encourage green innovations.

This year's fair, held in Shenzhen, is China's largest platform for international technological and economic exchange, highlighting emerging industries of strategic importance, low-carbon economy and environment-friendly technologies, according to the event's organizing committee.

Companies that specialize in new energy and green technologies, such as electric carmaker BYD and photovoltaic industry leader DuPont, attracted a great deal of attention, thanks to the prospect of business opportunities.

One of the participating companies, the Shenzhen Institute of Building Research Co Ltd, said its business in green building consultation has grown by a large margin in recent years, according to Wei Xinqi, an architect at the institute.

Wei told chinadaily.com.cn that the consultation business on green building, which includes technological tips, planning, standard drafting and other aspects in construction, accounts for 30 to 40 percent of their business, as more local governments and developers become aware of environment protection and energy conservation.

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The State-owned institute began its research and business on green building in 2000 and now is a leading enterprise of its kind in southern China, and its clients include major developers such as Vanke and China Merchants Property, said Wei.

He added that this is the third year the institute has taken part in the event.

Lenovo, China's leading PC maker, has attended the fair every year since its launch in 1999, and this year it put the emphasis on its energy saving products: an all-in-one desktop and cloud computing solutions, according to a staff member at Lenovo.

The all-in-one desktop can save electricity by 30 percent, the staff member told chinadaily.com.cn at the fair, and the cloud computing solutions, a system for organizing customers, such as companies and educational institutions, to manage data and information, can save energy by as much as 90 percent.

The solutions were launched about three months ago, the staff member added, and she believed the hi-tech fair is a very good platform to promote its latest products to both the public and enterprise customers.

The host city Shenzhen is the site of China's leading technology companies such as instant message provider Tencent and telecommunications-equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.

The city, which epitomizes China's economic miracle of the past three decades, is making major efforts to transform its economic pattern and upgrade its industries.