NPC deputy calls for more efforts on CIIE

A legislator has called for more effort to promote the spillover effect of the China International Import Expo during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wang Wei, a deputy to the National People's Congress and vice general manager of Shanghai Textile Decoration Corp, said that as the pandemic was not over and the global economy was facing a severe recession, efforts should be made to expand the expo’s “radiation effect,” to continue to magnify its “spillover effect” and boost recovery of the global economy.

Wang said current support polices had not yet fully covered the long-term import of foreign goods. 

CIIE exhibits can enjoy a series of customs measures. However, at present, these preferential policies still cannot be applied to the exhibition and trading of imported goods after the CIIE.

Wang suggested changes to customs supervision policies as a solution.

She suggested, for example, that Shanghai should clear the way for the purchase, extended exhibition and sale of CIIE exhibits, to allow them to be sold in accordance with cross-border e-commerce after they are transferred to bonded warehouses.

The procedures for obtaining licenses should be simplified, so as to further reduce exhibitors' participation costs, and to enable purchases to be made faster and more convenient.

Meanwhile, customs policies on traditional port trade should be changed into classified supervision policies of terminal sales inspection. The centralized inspections at ports should also be adjusted to bonded warehouse inspections to save the cost of government supervision and facilitate enterprises’ operations, Wang said.

As the pandemic had affected global trade, there were still defects in the distribution of imported and exported goods in Shanghai. 

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, sea, air and road transport had all been greatly affected. Some goods that would have come by sea or air had been switched to rail.

From January to April this year, China launched 2,920 trains linking China and Europe, with the number of trains and cargo transported increasing by 24 percent and 27 percent respectively year on year. The increased number of trains had boosted the development of many new forms of foreign trade, which become important transport modes connecting the supply chain of Central Europe and Central Asia.

However, so far, there was no such train heading toward Central Europe starting from Shanghai, she said. The city should keep on working on the establishment of an Asian import distribution center that can serve as an export, import and transit port.

The extended exhibition services at the 2nd CIIE had achieved good results, but there were too few platforms offering such services. Also, most of the platforms were in remote areas and geographically dispersed, affecting the flow of customers.

Wang suggested strengthening the hardware construction of import and export distribution, taking the opportunity of the expo to build the Asian import distribution center, and establish an integrated platform system in the Yangtze River Delta offering extended exhibition services.

In addition, as the "non-contact economy" during the pandemic may have a negative impact on the social influence and spillover effect of the expo, Wang called for launching an online expo and promoting development of a digital CIIE.

The CIIE should use digital technology to better support the more efficient and immediate delivery of expo-related information. By using advanced technologies such as 5G, virtual reality and augmented reality, the "digital CIIE" could be developed as an online expo “with full scenario,” Wang said.