German companies briefed on 4th import expo

The China International Import Expo Bureau held its first online promotion meeting for the fourth session on Thursday, attracting more than 100 German companies.

The bureau and the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai) briefed them on the latest progress of the fourth expo and Jan Jovy, general manager of the Shanghai branch of AHK China, part of the German Chambers of Commerce’s worldwide network, signed an online agreement with Liu Fuxue, the bureau’s deputy director, to participate in the event.

Germany was a guest country of honor at the first CIIE and around 170 German enterprises took part in last year’s expo with an overall exhibition area exceeding 18,000 square meters — both figures being the largest of all participating countries in Europe.

The expo is an excellent platform for German companies to introduce products and services to Chinese consumers and to strengthen and establish connections with the media, Jovy said.

AHK China organized an exhibition group for German small and medium-sized enterprises to take part in the expo, which brought them greater popularity and exposure, and attracted many well-known brands, he added.

Liu Donghai, deputy general manager of Rhein-Koester China, a company offering industry-education integration services, said it expected to achieve more fruitful results during the fourth CIIE.

“After participating in two sessions of the expo, we’ve signed 10 large-scale projects, such as training, equipment manufacturing, education resource packages and college construction, with the government, schools and enterprises,” Liu said.

The online meeting also attracted key exhibition agencies and foreign business organizations from Japan, Korea and Switzerland.

So far, hundreds of companies have signed up for the fourth CIIE, including world-famous German enterprises such as Metro AG, Bayer and Siemens Health Care.