Stroka also plans to locate his new venture in the delta. His company is developing a new website, iChina.com, to make it "the ultimate destination for expats, travelers and Chinese, which will cover information sharing, social networking and e-commerce."

The team, based in Xi'an, started building the website at the end of 2009 and they expect to have it up and running by the fall 2010, Stroka said.

But not all foreign companies find it convenient to invest in the delta.

Stephen Sham, Mayor of Alhambra, California, who was also present at the forum, said some industries were not "the priority areas" for the local government, which had discouraged some foreign firms.

"I once introduced an American textile company to the Shaanxi provincial government, but the province's textile industry was not very well-developed since it had not been a top priority for the provincial government, and the American company later invested in Nanchang, capital city of east China's Jiangxi Province," Sham said.

The delta, included in the "go west" drive, spans 380,000 square km and has a population of 130 million. The area's GDP was 1.9 trillion yuan (278 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, about seven percent of China's total.

The "go west" drive, initiated in 2000 to boost the less developed western regions, covers six provinces, five autonomous regions and Chongqing municipality, accounting for more than 70 percent of the mainland's area.

China's western development strategy involves infrastructure building, attracting of foreign investment, and increased efforts in ecological protection, education, and talent retention.