ULAN BATOR, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-six Chinese companies are participating in the Mongolia Mining 2019 International Mining & Oil Expo, which kicked off at the Buyant Ukhaa sports complex in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator on Wednesday.

"Our company is participating in the largest mining expo of Mongolia for the second time. We participated in the event in 2011 for the first time," Wells Wen, deputy director of sales department of a Chinese company, H.H. Drill-Tech Drilling Machinery Co., Ltd, told Xinhua.

"We came back to the expo this year because the Mongolian economy and market have been recovering," he added.

This year's expo, the 9th consecutive year of the exhibit, will feature traditional mining and emerging oil industries of Mongolia with exhibitors and visitors representing the industry's major companies and the largest number of professionals.

"The annual expo is the largest gathering of the Mongolian mining sector. It aims to introduce the Mongolian government's policies on the mining industry to foreign investors, help domestic companies to keep pace with latest technologies of the global mining industry and find new business partners, and attract more foreign investment into the mining industry," Tumurdash Battulga, head of the organizing committee of the expo, told Xinhua during the opening ceremony.

More than 150 exhibitors from around 20 countries including Mongolia, China, Russia, the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia will showcase their products and services during the three-day event, Battulga said. Among the participating foreign companies involved in the event, nearly half of them are Chinese companies.

Mining is one of the main economic sectors of the inland Asian country.

The sector single-handedly formed 87 percent of total exports, 72 percent of the industrial output, 24 percent of the gross domestic product and 75 percent of foreign investment in 2018, according to the country's Deputy Minister for Mining and Heavy Industry Deleg Zagdjav.