This year's CIIE bigger and better than ever

The third China International Import Expo to be launched next Wednesday is said to be well prepared, with a larger exhibition area, higher-quality exhibitors and exhibits, and stronger policy support.

The exhibition area is nearly 30,000 square meters bigger than last year’s and will have six areas — food and agricultural products; automobiles; intelligent industry and information technology; consumer goods; medical equipment and health-care products and trade in services.

Over 70 percent of the Global Fortune 500 enterprises and industry leaders who took part in the second CIIE are returning for this year’s expo, with their exhibition areas some 14 percent larger.

Most of the top 10 enterprises in industries such as pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, dairy, high-end consumer goods, automobiles, industrial electric and construction machinery are bringing their advanced products and cutting-edge technologies to the CIIE this year.

Hundreds of new products, technologies and services will make their global or Chinese debuts during the expo.

Because of this year’s special circumstances, the China International Import Expo Bureau took the initiative to control the number of visitors and sent targeted invitations to professional buyers with clear purchasing intention. Even so, buyers from all over the world still signed up for the expo, forming a total of 39 trading groups and nearly 600 sub-groups, with 112,000 companies, organizations or institutions and 400,000 people registering.

Among registered purchasers, manufacturing, wholesale and retail enterprises are the top three, accounting for 30.6 percent, 16 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.

The Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions remain the three major sources of professional visitors, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total.

This year’s event will see more supportive policies for CIIE participants, with measures including tax cuts, streamlined customs clearance, and easier market access. 

A greater spillover effect is expected this year. Shanghai has authorized seven new platforms offering "6+365 days" exhibition and trading services to support the CIIE, bringing the total number to 56, to make better use of opportunities brought by the expo.

In one case, the Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub has set up 39 national pavilions and imported more than 80,000 items. More branches of the trading hub have been set up in 12 cities across the country, establishing a nationwide distribution network for imported goods.

The bureau said a top priority would be epidemic prevention.

Since July 1, the National Exhibition and Convention Center has had 33 exhibitions attended by nearly 2.5 million people, with no COVID-19 infections reported.