The China International Import Expo is a connector between international and domestic markets in country's "dual circulation" development pattern, a Shanghai expert said.

In May, China's top leadership announced that it would "fully develop the advantages of the country's super-large market and the potential for domestic demand to establish a new development pattern featuring domestic and international dual circulations that complement each other".

"No country can maintain the growth of its exports forever, because a large export scale will require an equally large market to receive, and therefore China also needs to introduce foreign products to its domestic market — the CIIE is a large platform for that purpose," said Zhang Yugui, dean of the school of economics and finance at Shanghai International Studies University.

Around 400,000 professional visitors attended the third edition of the CIIE, which helped facilitate intended deals worth $72.6 billion.

China has made progress in connecting its market to the global market at policy and legal levels in recent years, Zhang said, adding that the promulgation of the Foreign Investment Law, the signing of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the China-EU bilateral investment treaty represent efforts to tear down the barriers between the two markets.

"The country will need to build a high-quality market that is open to the world, and this will in turn boost the country's high-quality development," Zhang said. "I think the CIIE is poised to achieve that aim. It is an important connecting point."

Zhang said the six-day annual trade fair has allowed domestic companies to see where the world's most cutting-edge products and technologies are and provided multinational companies with opportunities to engage the China market.

Last year, more than 400 new products, technologies or service items made their China or global debuts at the expo.

Zhang suggested that the expo continue to expand trade in services, which is more closely related to the country's overall economic development level and its business environment.

"The year 2020 saw world trade coming to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but by holding the CIIE, China has shown the world that it can stabilize the global value chains and is willing to share its growth dividends," Zhang said.

By Xing Yi