Afternoon of June 21.
Theme: Bringing In and Going Global: Exhibition Industries with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era.
Topic One: The Belt and Road Initiative and the China International Import Expo.
Speaker: Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the China International Import Expo Bureau.
Key Points:
On May 14, 2017, Xi Jinping announced that China would hold the China International Import Expo starting in 2018.
The China International Import Expo is not an ordinary exhibition. It is a policy declaration by the Chinese government on opening its market, and it will also play an active role in promoting business and trade exchanges under the Belt and Road Initiative.
New Features of Trade Exchanges between China and Belt and Road Countries
1. Countries: China's imports from countries along the Belt and Road currently focus mainly on Southeast Asia and West Asia, accounting for more than 70 percent. In the future, there is significant room to expand imports from South Asia, Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.
2. Import and export structure: China's exports to countries along the route are mainly infrastructure products, textiles and garments, and daily consumer goods, while imports are mainly resource and raw material products. There is substantial room to expand service trade.
3. Import categories: imports are mainly concentrated in food, edible oil, beauty and hairdressing and related fields. In line with the requirement to promote balanced trade, import categories still have significant market development space.
Three Contents, Three Goals and Three Meanings of the Import Expo
Contents: first, a national comprehensive investment and trade exhibition, equivalent to a small world expo, with an exhibition area of 30,000 square meters; second, an enterprise business exhibition, equivalent to an import version of the Canton Fair, with an exhibition area of 210,000 square meters, including six goods trade sections and one services trade section; third, the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum.
Goals: first, to become a platform for countries around the world to display national development achievements, conduct international trade and pursue open cooperation; second, to become an international public good that promotes Belt and Road development and economic globalization; third, to become a landmark project for implementing the new development concept and promoting a new round of high-level opening up.
Meanings: first, it is a major action in building an open economy; second, it is a comprehensive public platform for international cooperation; third, it is an effective measure for promoting supply-side structural reform.
Holding the Import Expo is a new milestone in the evolution of China's foreign trade pattern, and is also required by the times and by reform. The Import Expo will become a grand event attracting global attention and high expectations from all countries.
Preparations for the Import Expo
Country exhibition: more than 70 countries have confirmed participation in the national image exhibition.
Enterprise exhibition: the preparation time for the first Import Expo is short and the tasks are heavy. Through the efforts of all parties, the exhibitor recruitment task for the enterprise exhibition has already been overfulfilled.
Buyer organization: exhibitor matching meetings have been held, and pre-exhibition matching between exhibitors and buyers has been carried out for seven sections.
Forum: in addition to the main opening ceremony venue, the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum will include three parallel forums: trade and openness, trade and innovation, and trade and investment. About 2,000 representatives, including political figures from various countries, heads of international organizations, Chinese and foreign entrepreneur representatives and well-known scholars from China and abroad, will be invited to attend. Hardware renovation for the main venue is proceeding in an orderly manner.
On-site services: a framework plan for first-class services has been formulated. Focusing on comprehensively improving the exhibitor experience and exhibition results, the expo will build overseas exhibition and sales services, transaction promotion services, forum and conference services, reception and support services, and other systems. These will cover international, professional and first-class services before, during and after the exhibition. Priority will be given to key projects such as digital exhibitions and guide upgrades, eliminating pain points, creating highlights and using specific improvements to drive overall service upgrades.
Five First-Class Standards
The expo will reflect international first-class standards in five areas: first-class enterprises, first-class exhibits, first-class environment, first-class services and first-class results. First-class results mean that exhibitors and buyers should sign a large number of cooperation agreements.
