By He Yin
On July 27, China started the 100-day countdown to the 3rd China International Import Expo
(CIIE).
As the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging across the globe and posing severe risk of an economic
recession to the world, China aims to host a safe, high-level, and high-quality offline international
import expo as scheduled, striving to make it even better from a year ago. By doing this, China is
showing the world its sense of responsibility as a major country and its resolve to suit the action to
the word and accelerate global economic recovery.
As a major move taken by the Chinese government to open its market wider to the world so as to
promote trade liberalization and economic globalization, CIIE serves as an open cooperation
platform that enables various countries in the world to demonstrate their national images and carry
out international trade.
The first CIIE attracted 172 countries, regions and international organizations, more than 3,600
business exhibitors, and over 400,000 domestic and overseas buyers. Deals reached during the
event for intended purchase of goods and services within a year totaled $57.83 billion.
The 2nd CIIE, which was attended by 181 countries, regions, and international organizations, as
well as more than 3,800 business exhibitors and over 500,000 professional buyers from home and
abroad, facilitated deals for intended one-year purchases of goods and services worth a total of
$71.13 billion.
Delivering better and better performances in promoting cooperation, innovation, and shared
benefits, CIIE coveys to the world a general trend towards openness, global cooperation, as well
as mutual benefit and win-win results.
China is recognized as a country of opportunities by the world, and many foreign enterprises have
decided to grow together with the Chinese market.
As global trade is confronted with huge challenges caused by the unexpected COVID-19
pandemic, and exhibitors from various countries are eager to gain positive energy from the
upcoming CIIE, this year’s import expo is bound to be an unusual event.
To ensure that the CIIE can play a greater role in speeding up global economic recovery, China
has overcome various difficulties and is making active efforts to prepare for a CIIE with a larger
scale, better layout of exhibition zones, higher-quality exhibitors, and more policy support.
Besides, this year’s event is expected to help attract investment with improved mechanisms, more
practical and targeted measures, and better services for matchmaking between supply and demand.
In addition, a special zone for public health and epidemic prevention and control will be added to
the 3rd CIIE, intending to pool the strength of the whole industrial chain to promote optimization
and innovation in the global public health field by offering a platform for pharmaceutical and
medical apparatus and instruments enterprises that have made outstanding contributions to the
global fight against the COVID-19.
More than 2,000 enterprises from the world registered for the event in the first half of this year,
with the reserved exhibition area exceeding 90 percent of the planned area. Some exhibition zones
have only few booths left, while certain zones have been fully booked.
This year’s CIIE will be one of the most powerful weapons for boosting global economy, said
some companies, which are ready to take part in the 3rd CIIE and confident about the success of
the event and the prospects of the Chinese market and economy.
“We must have a more open mindset and take more open steps, and work together to make the pie
of the global market even bigger. We need to strengthen the mechanisms for sharing benefits
globally, and explore new ways of international cooperation. The goal is to give more impetus to
economic globalization and remove impediments as much as we could.” The remarks of Chinese
President Xi Jinping made at the opening ceremony of the 2nd CIIE showed clearly China’s
aspirations to the world.
By building a platform of global cooperation, China hopes to promote openness and cooperation
and pursue mutual benefit and win-win results with the CIIE.
According to the latest statistics from China’s General Administration of Customs, China’s
imports reported the first positive year-on-year growth in June since the outbreak of the COVID-
19, boosting global confidence in the Chinese market with a 6.2-percent year-on-year growth rate.
Looking to the future, China is expected to gradually create a new development pattern whereby
domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, thus
helping open up new channels for facilitating international trade and cooperation and further
boosting the recovery and development of global economy and trade.
China has always been a firm defender of multilateral trading mechanisms. From putting forward
the idea of jointly building the Belt and Road to hosting the CIIE, China thinks that it needs to not
only open its market to the rest of the world, but also reach out its hands to welcome others, said
Keith Rockwell, spokesman with the World Trade Organization.
China’s continuously unleashing domestic demand to better enhance the linkage between the
domestic and global markets is bound to further facilitate the development of an open world
economy.
Joseph Romanelli, senior vice president of U.S. pharmaceutical enterprise MSD and president of
MSD China who took part in the 2nd CIIE and is ready to attend this year’s event, said that the
effect of the CIIE on boosting cooperation was beyond expectation and that he could feel China’s
firm confidence in expanding opening-up and promoting cooperation between Chinese and
foreign companies everywhere during the expo.
The 3rd CIIE, which is designed to serve as a platform for boosting common development and
sharing opportunities, is slated to be held on the bank of the Huangpu River in east China’s
Shanghai in 100 days.
It is expected that the platform, which benefits the world by gathering goods, buyers, and sellers
all over the globe, can yield greater fruits in promoting common development.
Endeavoring to open its door wider to the world so as to create new opportunities out of crises and
open up new prospects in changing circumstances, China is bound to help improve the well-being
of people around the world with its upcoming CIIE.
