At the critical moment of fighting the global COVID-19 pandemic and the resuscitation of world economy, the 4th China International Import EXPO is going to be held on November 5th-10th, 2021, at National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), with friends from Pakistan and other countries all over the world gathering in Shanghai once more to share the fresh opportunity in China, which dedicates to creating proper arena for countries and regions to do business, strengthening cooperation and promoting common prosperity of the world economy and trade.
The China International Import EXPO, abbreviated as CIIE, is the world’s first national EXPO focused on import. Personally planned, proposed, deployed and promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the CIIE is a major decision by the country with a aim to propel a new round of high-level opening up and a significant move on actively opening Chinese market to the world. There are abundant achievements attained during the former three CIIEs. For the scale part, each session attracted more than 200 Fortune 500 companies and industry leading enterprises, about 400,000 to 500,000 buyers came for the precious business opportunities. The former three CIIEs reached the turnover of USD57.8 billion, USD71.1 billion and USD72.6 billion respectively?and every CIIE contained various economic cooperation together with people-to-people and cultural exchanges. President Xi Jinping attended and delivered keynote speeches on the previous three sessions of CIIE, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan, founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, several Nobel Prize winners and other leaders from political circle, business and academia also attended previous sessions to exchange views of mutual opportunities and development. With three years of experiences, the CIIE is turning exhibits into commodities, making exhibitors become investors, exchanging innovations and ideas, and establishing strong connection between China and the whole world. What the CIIE expects are the guests from all around the world, what the CIIE cares is the benefits of all countries, what the CIIE conforms is people’s aspirations to live a better life.
Like the previous sessions, the 4th CIIE consists of four parts, the Country Exhibition, the Business Exhibition, the Hongqiao Forum and the Supporting Activities. There are 58 countries and 3 international organizations in total have confirmed their presence on the Country Exhibition, and approximately 3,000 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions will show themselves during the Business Exhibition. These numbers records a breakthrough. There are also 39 trade groups and 599 sub-groups set by buyers from all around the world who will come to purchase.
The Country Exhibition plays an essential role in the CIIE, through which, the exhibiting countries are able to present their integrated image of trade & investment, distinctive industries, tourism and exemplary enterprises to the audiences worldwide. Besides the traditional offline pavilions, the Country Exhibition will also go online this time. The audiences are going to enjoy an immersive tour in the digital pavilions created by 3D Modeling, Virtual Engine and other cutting-edge technologies. The exhibitors include the developed countries, the developing countries and the least developed countries from five continents. There is no doubt that those countries alongside The Belt and Road (B&R) are the most active participators. Among all the 58 exhibitors, 15 of them attend the Country Exhibition for the first time, and 5 of those 15 are new friends of the CIIE. The Country Exhibition this year is an audio-visual feast of multi civilizations.
The Business Exhibition sets its 366,000-square-meter exhibition areas separately in 6 individual categories: Food and Agricultural Products, Automobile, Intelligent Industry and Information Technology, Consumer Goods, Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products. 96% of the pavilions are specially decorated. More exhibitors join the CIIE from countries alongside B&R?central and eastern European countries and the least developed countries. The number of small and medium-sized enterprises which attend the CIIE as a group is 30% more than the last session. 80% of the exhibiting Fortune 500 companies and industry leading enterprises are the returned attendees. Many Hidden Champions of the industry will also join this EXPO. Lots of new products and services are expected to be released in this session by world’s top 3 auction houses, top 3 fashionable high-end consumer products groups, top 4 food dealers, top 10 automobile groups, top 10 industrial electric enterprises, top 10 medical equipment companies and top 10 cosmetic enterprises. Moreover, 13 special exhibiting districts on low carbon energy, environmental protection, business incubation etc. and 14 professional committee on medical equipment, intelligent travelling and new energy etc. are established as the platform for communication between governments and enterprises, so that the resources and demands can be matched precisely.
The Hongqiao International Economic Forum of this session will be held with the theme of World Economy amidst Profound Changes: Global Economic Cooperation in Post-Covid Era. Envoys and experts from political, business, academic circles are invited to join the Forum both at site and online. In memory of the 20th anniversary of China’s accession to the WTO, serial activities including high-level forum and memorial exhibition will be held. During this Hongqiao Forum, the World Opening-up Report 2021 and the World Opening-up Index will also be published to review the opening-up degree of 129 economic entities since 2008. In addition to all these, there will be 12 sub forums discussing topics on Green Development, Digital Economy, Intelligent Manufacturing, Intellectual Property Protection, Regional Economic Integration and so on, aiming to provide “Hongqiao wisdom” for building a community with a shared future of mankind.
The Supporting Activities of the CIIE are divided into the following categories: Policy Interpretations, Matchmaking and Contract Signing, New Products Exhibition, Investment Promotion, People-to-People Exchange, Research Result Release. Most of them are held by the Chinese government, international organizations with great influence and industry associations. Participating countries and regions, exhibitors, buyers and mainstream Medias can also apply for hosting the Supporting Activities of their own in the CIIE. Among these activities, there are interpretations on opening-up policies, explorations on industry forefront, and the tradition meets the modern like a conference discussing the Innovations of China’s Time-honored brands. The exhibiting area for the Supporting Activities is 50% larger than the last session, which makes the formalities more various and the contents more substantial.
China and Pakistan are all weather strategic partners and support each other on economy, trade, technology, culture and other areas. From the Karakoram Highway in the late 1960s to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at present, the cooperation of economy and trade has reached an unprecedented level. Inspired by the mutual efforts, the second phase of the CPEC is under construction, the Phase II of China-Pakistan FTA has already gone into full play and the business environment of Pakistan has been significantly improved, the basis of economy and trade cooperation between these two nations has been consolidated. There is no doubt that the CIIE plays as the catalyst of these. According to the statistics of the Chinese government, China has been the largest trading partner of Pakistan consecutively for 6 years, and currently China is Pakistan’s largest source of import country and the second largest destination for export. And from Jan. to Sep. 2021, the trade value between our two nations was $19.6 billion, China’s import from Pakistan reaching $2.52 billion, realizing a 77% increase from the same period of last year. The CIIE brings Pakistan enterprises and Chinese market closer by creating abundant precious business opportunities. China is looking forward to having Pakistan friends attending all kinds of exhibitions in China, seizing every opportunity and sharing the fruit of China’s development to boosts Pakistan’s development.
“A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves, we’ll set our cloud-white sail and cross the sea which raves”, though the world keeps changing, China’s determination of sticking to high quality opening-up policy, efforts for building a community with a shared future of mankind as well as commitments of tackling challenges and developing together with Pakistan brothers will always remain unchanged.
