The second China International Import Expo will be held in Shanghai from Nov 5 to 10 with a larger exhibition area and more specialized zones than it featured last year.

With a vast exhibition area of nearly 300,000 square meters, the second CIIE will add outdoor exhibition venues, specialized zones and new themes. Among them, the national exhibition area will be 30,000 sq m. The business exhibition will have five themes — equipment, consumption, food, health and services. Meanwhile, the position of guests and scale of Hongqiao Forum will exceed the first, as well, according to a promotion event held in Macao on February.

Sun Chenghai, deputy director of CIIE Bureau, said he welcomed Macao enterprises to actively sign up for the second CIIE this year.

The country has been promoting a new round of high-level opening up to the world. As a milestone and landmark project of high-level opening up in the new era, CIIE provides a good opportunity for Macao's moderately diversified economic development, and Macao enterprises’ further exploration on the mainland market and integration into the process of economic globalization, Sun said. The event also attracts a number of representatives from Macao government and business circle.

In the first CIIE, the Macao exhibition zone highlighted its development achievements as a world tourism and leisure center and a platform for business and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. A total of 54 Macao enterprises participated in the exhibition, covering food and agricultural products, service trade, jewelry and jade industries. With an area of 1,606 sq m, the total turnover reached $25.5 million, mainly in the fields of food and agricultural products and service trade.

"For Macao enterprises, CIIE is an ideal platform to seize the opportunities of the country's new round of reform and opening up, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as to expand their own development space," said Va Kuan Lau, acting president of Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, also known as IPIM.  Macao enterprises have received fruitful results during the first CIIE, which encourages IPIM to make further efforts to assist more Macao enterprises to participate in the second CIIE, she said.

Preparations for the second CIIE are in full swing. The contracted area of the exhibition has exceeded 160,000 sq m, and the area reserved by Macao enterprises has already reached 1,400 sq m.