More new overseas enterprises will participate in the sixth China International Import Expo (CIIE) slated to be held in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10 this year to tap the Chinese market.

Nearly 20 Fortune 500 enterprises, leading-industry companies, and over 500 small and medium-sized enterprises have signed up to participate in the major import expo for the first time, according to the CIIE Bureau.

Among the first-time participants is the Japanese lifestyle brand MUJI. Shimizu Satoshi, board chairman and managing director of MUJI (Shanghai) Company Limited, said with the CIIE debut, the company hopes to demonstrate its unwavering commitment to being deeply rooted in the Chinese market.

Attracted by the growing purchasing power of consumers in the country of 1.4 billion people, about 200 enterprises have signed up to attend the event for six consecutive years. It demonstrates their commitment to and confidence in the world's second-largest economy.

A combined business exhibition area of over 360,000 square meters has been booked thus far, with enterprises ready to showcase their newest products and services. About 2,000 new products, technologies, and services were first launched in the past five sessions.

There will be six business exhibition areas for food and agricultural products, automobile, intelligent industry and information technology, consumer goods, medical equipment and healthcare products, and trade in services.

More than 40 enterprises have even signed up to attend the 7th CIIE next year, with over 30,000 square meters of business exhibition area booked to date, according to the organizer.

Zhu Min, head of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said that the city's 60 trading platforms running throughout the year have brought in nearly 200,000 exhibited products from the CIIE, importing 323 billion yuan (about 45.3 billion U.S. dollars) worth of goods.

The 6th CIIE will take place completely offline this year after the country optimized its COVID-19 control measures. As the world's first import-themed national-level expo, the event serves as a platform to share China's business opportunities with nations and enterprises globally to boost sluggish economic growth.

Sun Chenghai, deputy director-general of the CIIE Bureau, said that many countries and international organizations have confirmed to attend the country exhibition section, which will be held offline and have guest countries of honor this year. The country exhibition has been held online over the past two years during the pandemic.

Tu Xinquan, head of the China Institute for WTO Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, said the CIIE sent the world a clear signal of China's commitment to reform and opening-up and continuous support to economic globalization and also demonstrated China's image as a major responsible country.

"China's opening-up has injected certainty into the world economy, with the import expo benefiting the world," said Tu.