The China International Import Expo (CIIE) has become a landmark event for China's opening-up, helping major global exhibitors showcase their products and build connections while also demonstrating the impressive achievements of the country's streamlined customs clearance and distribution networks.
More than 1,000 enterprises, including nearly 260 Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders, have signed up for the seventh CIIE, to be held in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10.
As the world's first import-themed national-level exhibition, the CIIE has been held in Shanghai's National Exhibition and Convention Center for six consecutive years, helping exhibits to become commodities and exhibitors to become investors.
Since the first edition in 2018, a total of 142 countries and international organizations have participated online and offline in the event, including 117 countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and 26 least-developed countries.
An exhibition area of more than 360,000 square meters has been booked for the expo, with nine promotion and matchmaking events being held nationwide, inking key procurement partnership deals with nearly 20 industry leaders.
International envoys and industry representatives agreed that the CIIE has been crucial for building up lucrative business partnerships across borders.
"We are very actively cooperating with China on the trade and economic track. The forthcoming Shanghai import expo is an outstanding event not only locally but also internationally. Georgia is a usual customer of this event, and this year we're going to present the biggest delegation, I think ever, [that] Georgia participated in," said Paata Kalandadze, the Ambassador of Georgia to China.
"It's a global platform to exhibit our national products, and also it's a communication platform [to] find win-win cooperation [and] solutions with Chinese partners and also foreign partners," said Davit Mkhitaryan, vice-president of the Armenian Chinese Partnership Center.
More than 2,400 new products, technologies and services have been launched at the previous six editions of the CIIE, with a cumulative intended transaction volume of more than 420 billion U.S. dollars.
The seventh CIIE this year also has several highlights, including setting up a special exhibition area for new materials for the first time, making innovations for the incubation area to explore new markets and bringing more opportunities for featured products.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L'Oreal Group, a seven-time CIIE exhibitor, describes the expo as an event featuring "opportunities, innovation, exchanges, collaboration and shared growth."
"It's the only event like this in the world where L'Oreal is so involved, where we introduce new brands, innovations. And we have lots of interactions with our Chinese partners, with subcontractors, but also with the authorities. So, for us, it's both a testimonial of our belief in China and the fact that we want to continue to invest in China," said Hieronimus.
Kazutaka Arai, president of Nachi-Fujikoshi (China), a Japanese company among the first enterprises to sign contracts for participation at the first CIIE, said the expo serves as a path to gain greater brand recognition.
"We have all noticed that [the CIIE] has made the Chinese market more open, helping achieve the goal of trade liberalization and economic globalization. I think these are the significance of the CIIE. Through participating in the event, I feel that the visibility of our brand and our company has been further improved," said Arai.
Yin Yong-il, general manager of Hyundai Motor Group China's N brand, a series of high-performance vehicles, said the event helps the company toward its goal of developing products and technologies that meet the interests of Chinese consumers.
"In the future, the Chinese market will inevitably become the world’s center. We will make every effort to develop products and technologies that Chinese consumers like and apply these technologies to the global market. Meanwhile, we will also introduce new products and technologies that we have developed in the global market to China," said Yin.
Li Qing, vice president of Government Affairs and Strategic Development of Baker Hughes Company Greater China, said that expanding procurement in China through the platform of the CIIE has helped enhance the company's global competitiveness.
"China is actually the country with the lowest cost both in terms of supply chain and in terms of quality and affordability. By expanding our procurement in China, we have actually increased Baker Hughes' global competitiveness. More than 50 percent of our procurement in China is for global projects, not just for those in China," Li said.
Meanwhile, the event venue is eager to show that Chinese authorities have made every effort to ensure the smooth entry of global products like delicacies of different countries, automobiles and cutting-edge technology.
"This bluefin tuna from Malta, for example, it only takes six days from hauling it up from the Mediterranean Sea to sending it to the venue of the CIIE, which absolutely ensures freshness. What's behind this is the institutional innovation and breakthrough on customs clearance facilitation and rapid food inspection and quarantine. Similarly, there are many other such innovations and breakthroughs at the CIIE," said Zheng Yusheng, general manager of Shanghai's National Exhibition and Convention Center office.
Just across form the venue, 68 national pavilions have been set up at the Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub (G-Hub), a normalized one-stop trading service platform for imported commodities to support the expo.
"The CIIE is more focusing on [the] professional [side]. Also, the visitors come from all over China. The interest is always big," said Ramazan, a Turkish businessman.
According to the World Openness Report 2023, the flagship publication of the Hongqiao International Economic Forum, China's openness index rose from 0.6789 in 2008 to 0.7517 in 2022, one of the highest increases in the world.
In addition to the CIIE, there are also many other windows for high-level opening up in China.
The 22 pilot free trade zones, with less than four-thousandths of the country's land area, contributed 20.8 percent of China's attraction of foreign investment and 19.5 percent of its imports and exports.
China's first negative list for foreign investment access in 2013 restricted investment on 190 items, while the number now stands at just 27 after several rounds of cuts.
CIIE becomes landmark event for promoting access to Chinese market
