On the afternoon of February 1, the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Zambia held the Promotion Conference of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Zambia to consolidate the exhibitor invitation achievements made in the previous stage and further publicize the CIIE. Kayonla Shiame, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Zambia, and Ouyang Daobing, a counsellor in the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Zambia, attended and made speeches at the promotion conference. The representatives from Zambia Development Agency (“ZDA”), International Trade Center (“ITC”) and other agencies also participated in the promotion conference.

Ouyang Daobing firstly introduced the 1st CIIE and emphasized that the holding of CIIE would be a major move by Chinese government to firmly support trade liberalization and economic globalization and actively open up the Chinese market to the world, and a top priority of our work throughout the year. The Chinese market is very huge. In the next five years, China will import goods and services totaling more than USD10 trillion. This platform of CIIE will allow all other countries in the world to expand their exports to China and form a new pattern of win-win cooperation. Therefore, he hoped that Zambian side would take full advantage of this rare opportunity to promote their superior products and services.

Then, Ouyang Daobing summarized the exhibitor invitation achievements made from last year and extended sincere gratitude to Zambia for their great supports. He said that ZDA, as an exhibition organizer, and ITC, as a collaboration unit, both had played extremely important role in the CIIE. As of the end of January, a total of 12 Zambian enterprises had officially registered through official website or email. ZDA also announced that it would apply for booths in the name of government agency. At the conference, Ouyang Daobing elaborated the goal of building CIIE as a “world-class expo” and hoped that Zambia could actively recommend “first-class enterprises and first-class products” to participate in the CIIE and strive to introduce the most advantageous, distinctive and competitive products and services into China and promote and popularize them to the world.

Kayonla Shiame, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Zambia, said that this significant initiative of CIIE would help Zambia to develop the Chinese market and share economic growth achievements. Zambia would attach great importance to and actively participate in the CIIE and firmly seize this opportunity to ensure the quantity and quality of exhibitors both up to standard. Zambia would proactively support all exhibitor invitation and publicity work. Kayonla Shiame said that she would accept micro-video interview to publicize high-quality Zambian products and services and describe her expectations for the CIIE. She also hoped that Chinese side would continue to provide them with assistance in capital and other facilitation measures to jointly promote the successful holding of the first CIIE and further boost the economic and trade cooperation and exchange between China and Zambia.