Hongqiao hub facilitates growth of Hongqiao Pinhui

As the Hongqiao International Open Hub celebrates its second anniversary, the Hongqiao Import Commodities Expo and Trade Center signed agreements to strengthen collaboration with three Yangtze River Delta branches.

The exhibition and trade center for imported goods, including the China International Import Expo, has branches in Suzhou, Jiaxing and Hefei.

The agreements will broaden their collaboration from commodities trade to resource sharing and industrial linkage and sharing the CIIE spillover effects.

The center, also known as Hongqiao Pinhui, was established to extend the annual six-day CIIE service to exhibit and trade imported products all year.

Over the last five years, it has attracted businesses from more than 90 countries and regions to put over 70,000 products on the market. It has also opened 17 locations across the country.

Approximately 800 CIIE exhibitors have invested in the area, contributing over 10 billion yuan (US$1.45 billion) in annual foreign trade.

"The Hongqiao International Open Hub has offered new chances for Hongqiao Pinhui as an active platform for promoting international trade," said Zhu Jing, deputy general manager of the Hongqiao Import Commodities Expo and Trade Center.

Zhu said the hub's 80,000-square-meter exhibition and trade building was put into use before the development plan was revealed two years ago.

Three storeys above ground house CIIE product malls, a coffee trade harbor and international trade headquarters. Three storeys below include a wine cellar and a 9,000-square-meter livestreaming room for imported goods.

Zhu described the facility as an independent international trade ecosystem comprising warehousing, exhibitions, sales, business, trade, offices, work, apprenticeships and training.

"You can see all parties involved in the international trade chain – imported brand owners, foreign traders, customs supervision authorities and local buyers," Zhu said.

Besides it is a 400,000sqm office building and 50,000sqm logistics center, which offer services ranging from taxation, customs, financial settlement, and exit-entry services. The logistic center had a total import and export volume of 2 billion yuan last year.

Zhu said that some construction activity at Hongqiao Pinhui will be completed this year. The center will expand to 660,000 square meters in August when a 139,000 square meters structure for commodity exhibition and trading is completed.

A portion of the new building will be operational before this year's CIIE.

Zhu said Hongqiao Pinhui aspires to become the largest bonded trade platform in size and commodity variety by 2025, and a cluster for international traders with an annual trade volume of over 100 billion yuan. It will also have 100 branches by that time.

Zhu said Hongqiao Pinhui will trade high-end consumer and industrial products this year while hosting more cultural, tourism and environmental activities.