China vowed to strengthen its efforts to hold exhibitions and fairs during this year's two sessions. The government work report states that the country will implement opening-up policies on a deeper level, promote stable and improved performance in foreign trade and investment, and ensure that major expos are successful, including the China International Import Expo (CIIE), the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) and the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services.

It has been three years since the first CIIE. It is well-known that CIIE has generated a spillover effect that has promoted high-level opening up. This shows the key function of the major exhibition and its role in advancing China's overall development, according to Zhang Min, the executive head of Shanghai University's Shanghai Exhibition Research Institute.

As the world's first national expo focusing on imports, the original objective of CIIE was to build a global platform to facilitate communication between the supply and demand sides, said Zhang. 

Holding CIIE is a move to actively open up the Chinese market to the outside world. By supporting the multilateral system of free trade, promoting international trade and domestic industrial transformation, and exploring the institutional guarantee for high-level opening up, China intends to solve the urgent problem of lacking worldwide transactions caused by frequent trade disputes, Zhang added.

For the past three consecutive years, the intended turnover reached at CIIE was $57.83 billion, $71.13 billion and $72.62 billion. In 2020, the event helped China to keep foreign trade and investment stable despite the pressure of trade friction and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Zhang. 

China's value of imports accounted for nearly 10 percent of the world's total, contributing to one-sixth of global import growth. 

Moreover, the country has been the second-largest import market worldwide for 11 consecutive years. Imports have become a reliable booster and stabilizer of China's economic development and global economic recovery, Zhang said.

Zhang also noted that the exhibition area of the third CIIE reached nearly 360,000 square meters. Following the success of CIIE, there will be more expos and fairs in China. Exhibitions held in Shanghai cover an area of nearly 20 million square meters every year and the national number is nearly 150 million square meters annually.

Sources: China Trade News, chinadaily.com.cn