The ninth China International Import Expo is 100 days away. According to a press conference held on Monday, 53 countries and three international organizations have confirmed a national pavilion at the event. Romania, Moldova and the United Nations Development Programme will be participating for the first time.

What's more, Canada will be the guest country of honor for the second time. More than 1,200 organizations from 99 countries and regions have also confirmed company pavilions and 265 of them are Fortune 500 companies. According to the size of the exhibition area, the United States is now top among all foreign nations. The CIIE will upgrade its special section for African countries that have diplomatic relations with China, encouraging the Global South to actively use the CIIE platform.

EMILY HEMMINGS Commercial Consul, East China British Consulate-General Shanghai "The UK views CIIE as a key platform for UK companies coming to China. We first participated in the first ever CIIE, which was in 2018, as a country of honor. So, we see this as a key platform. We particularly find the opportunity for small and medium sized enterprises to be very useful to understand the Chinese market and to engage with Chinese consumers."

JOHN MADEW Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Australian Trade and Investment Commission "Last year, we had 180 companies and we expect to do significantly better this year. We are just finalizing our negotiation on the space and I know we'll have quite a bit more space than last year so it looks very exciting."

JAN ZAPLETAL Director, CzechTrade China "Czech companies have been attending CIIE since the beginning of the initiative, so this year we will have a stable number around 10 companies, mostly in the food and beverage sector. But we are trying to promote the event as much as possible and I hope next year we can also bring other companies from different industries as well."