Preparation for fourth expo includes commitment from a slew of global companies already slated to participate

Preparation for the fourth China International Import Expo has made solid progress with two lists of more than 300 exhibitors released to buyers in advance of Sunday's 200-day countdown.

The CIIE Bureau said matchmaking sessions will be arranged in the next few months to promote the business environment and industrial development potential of cities in China.

During the celebration to mark the 200-day countdown for the 2021 CIIE on Sunday, organizers held a promotional event to provide global enterprises with more information about Shanghai in fields such as trade, investment and industrial cooperation opportunities.

Over the past few months, the CIIE Bureau has made significant efforts to enhance professional service standards of the annual event and help enterprises tap into business opportunities under China's new development pattern of dual circulation.

Higher service standards

To give expo participants more insights into the Chinese market, the CIIE Bureau has been creating subsections within themed exhibition areas since the 2020 edition.

The subsections are of great importance in attracting leading niche market players and sharing new findings on market trends, according to the CIIE organizers.

During the 2020 edition, subsections dedicated to public health and anti-pandemic products and services, smart transportation, energy conservation and environmental protection and sporting goods were created. Each of the new subsections received positive feedback from global exhibitors.

In preparation for the 2021 expo, the organizers began establishing subsections for integrated circuits, smart transportation, biomedicine and digital industries back in December.

A plan to upgrade the energy conservation and environmental protection subsection into a low-carbon energy and environmental protection technology subsection was announced in March.

According to Sun Chenghai, deputy director-general of the CIIE Bureau, subsections in the 2021 edition will support China's new development pattern of dual circulation and serve the country's long-term industrial development goal.

"The scale of a subsection may not be large, but it should depict key characters of a sector," Sun said. "When conditions are favorable, special committees for industries can be created to attract more enterprises, as well as to support the development of industries and the CIIE."

Apart from upgrading and setting up subsections, the CIIE Bureau has been creating special committees for the 2021 CIIE under the fourth CIIE Enterprise Alliance to strengthen communications among companies, governments and organizations while also promoting cross-industry resource sharing and integration.

Several special committees of the expo across different sectors, including dairy, sports and agricultural products, have been created. Among them, three committees covering low-carbon energy and environmental protection technology, smart transportation and new energy, and integrated circuits debuted at the end of March.

A special committee for eco-friendly and smart home appliances was established on April 8 to facilitate production and consumption upgrades in the industry. BSH Home Appliances was appointed the first chairman enterprise of the committee.

The CIIE organizers have been working to make the annual CIIE a comprehensive and professional trade fair, meaning each exhibition section offers a comprehensive trade fair for each specific industry. The increasing number of subsections and special committees have played a significant role in supporting the CIIE Bureau to achieve the goal.

"I think a comprehensive expo and a professionally organized expo do not have to be mutually exclusive" Sun said. "In fact, they can complement and empower one another. We hope companies in subsections and special committees make better use of the CIIE to exchange and share information to demonstrate advantages of the expo."

Tap into new opportunities

China is fostering the new economic development pattern of dual circulation and the CIIE is set to be a platform for companies to tap into new business opportunities under the new paradigm, expo organizers said.

A lecture on coping with the world's changing business environment and leveraging China's new development strategy was held by the secretariat of the Hongqiao International Economic Forum and the forum's research center in Boao of Hainan province on March 26.

During the lecture, keynote speakers interpreted China's development strategy and the changes to the business environment in the country and the world, based on the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the outline of China's long-term development goal for 2035.

A series of promotional events were hosted this year to give global enterprises more clarity on China's developments and potential. The events attracted a large number of governments, businesses and organizations.

The CIIE Bureau held an online promotional event on March 30 to encourage more Central and Eastern European countries to participate in the fourth expo. Representatives from countries including Poland, Serbia and Bulgaria attended the meeting.

During the event, the Bulgarian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Development Agency of Serbia and VICI Group signed up for the 2021 CIIE.

At the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Summit earlier this year, China announced a raft of initiatives and shared its plans to import more than $170 billion in goods from CEE countries during the next five years.

According to Suo Peng, deputy director of the European Affairs Department at the Ministry of Commerce, in addition to agricultural products, CEE countries have many other featured commodities and services, such as auto parts, machinery, electrical equipment, medicine and logistics. China hopes to leverage the CIIE and the China-CEEC Expo to expand imports from CEE countries.

Sun said the fourth CIIE will provide more support for enterprises from CEE countries and establish a special zone to facilitate trade and investment matchmaking during the 2021 expo, as well as other related promotion activities between governments in China and the CEE.

The CIIE Bureau hosted an online promotional event for Russian enterprises on April 7.

Liu Xuesong, deputy director-general of Eurasia affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, said the trade value between China and Russia increased 8.5 percent year-on-year for the first two months of 2021. The growth is a positive signal that the annual trade value between the two countries could reach new highs.

Liu hopes that Russian companies will actively participate in the fourth CIIE to explore collaboration opportunities in agriculture, electronic products, innovation, e-commerce and biomedicine.

Sun said more than 100 Russian companies have participated in the previous expos, and Russian products such as dairy, meat, and ice-cream have been well-received by Chinese consumers.

The 2021 CIIE, set to run from Nov 5 to 10 in Shanghai, will host a business exhibition, a country exhibition, the Hongqiao International Economic Forum and an array of supporting activities.

The planned space of the business exhibition is 360,000 square meters. Six exhibition areas, including food and agricultural products, automobiles, intelligent industry and information technology, consumer goods, medical equipment and healthcare products, as well as trade in services, will be featured.

By Tang Zhihao