China ready for 2nd CIIE

China is ready to host the second China International Import Expo, said Assistant Commerce Minister Ren Hongbin during a press conference in Shanghai on Saturday.

Among the 64 country pavilions, 24 are new to the event, which helps to cover all five continents, Ren said.

For the business pavilions, companies from the US, Japan, Germany, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, France, Australia, Switzerland and the UK make up the top ten in terms of exhibition area.

More than 500,000 professional buyers have registered to visit, a huge increase from last year, Ren said.

At the same time, the beauty economy has been an epitome of China’s consumption upgrade, and they will make a beautiful presence at the second China International Import Expo, experts said at a forum hosted jointly by China Business Network and a French cosmetics company.

Dong Chao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said the beauty economy provides great opportunities for businesses from both home and abroad.

“The demand for products of higher quality has risen tremendously,” Dong said. According to data from the commerce ministry, China’s imports of consumer goods rose 10.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.22 trillion yuan (US$ billion) in 2018. Among them, the imports of cosmetics surged 65.8 percent, reflecting a strong growth powered by demand for better products.

Wang Depei, chief analyst at Forecast Think Tank, said people have redefined the word luxury in China.

“Luxury means something unnecessary. But now some luxury brands have found they are needed in China, with consumers considering they are part of their life,” Wang said.

It is estimated that China will import over US$30 trillion products and over US$10 trillion services in the future 15 years as it is transformed from a “world factory” to a “world market” amid which the China International Import Expo will serve as a catalyst.

“The event is of significant importance. It can not only help to increase the scale of consumption, but also divert overseas consumption back home to reduce trade imbalances,” Dong said.

Besides, when premium products are available within China, they will have more reasonable prices after the local branches have more power in pricing, Dong said.

So far, many cosmetics companies have confirmed their participation in the second CIIE.