The south square of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), a main venue for the fourth China International Import Expo, in Shanghai before CIIE opening on Nov 4. (FANG ZHE / XINHUA)

The fourth China International Import Expo, being held from Nov 5-10 in Shanghai, continues to demonstrate the country’s determined will for opening-up and providing opportunities to the world with its development.

In his keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the CIIE and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum, President Xi Jinping emphasized the country’s embrace of deepening exchanges with other parts of the world.

Xi has always reiterated China’s commitment to further opening-up, analysts said, and the annual global trade gala is a concrete move by the country to deepen international business cooperation for shared prosperity and progress. 

CIIE also is a move to share the benefits and opportunities of China’s rapid development with the entire world, and to support economic globalization and the building of an open world economy, they said.

Business leaders and experts also emphasized that this year’s CIIE will inject more growth momentum and confidence into the global economy, which is facing headwinds due to pandemic-fueled disruptions to both supply and demand.

As a signature event of China’s opening-up, the CIIE is the world’s first national-level import exhibition and an innovation in the history of global trade.

Nearly 3,000 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions are participating this November, using a combined exhibition space of over 360,000 square meters, the CIIE Bureau, which organized the event, said at a news conference last week.

From 2018 to 2020, the intended turnover of previous three import expos reached about $201.6 billion, contributing significantly to global trade growth and world economic development.

During his speeches either on-site or via video at CIIE opening ceremonies each year, Xi has reaffirmed that China will expand opening-up and sincerely desires to share its market opportunities with the world.

“We will steadfastly expand all-around opening-up and explore more efficient ways to connect domestic and foreign markets and share factors of production and resources,” the president said via video at last year’s CIIE opening ceremony.

“The holding of the CIIE demonstrates that China honors its commitment to high-level opening-up and sharing development dividends with others to shore up globalization,” said Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

“The world is in urgent need of more trade orders and increased demand to revive the staggering economic recovery, as well as communications to reach consensus and find more effective ways to combat the pandemic and repair global industrial and supply chains, and regarding both, the CIIE will play a vital positive role,” he said.

Leon Wang, executive vice-president of global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, was excited about taking part in the CIIE for the fourth time in person.

“The CIIE is an important window for China’s opening-up. We value the CIIE as a unique stage both to demonstrate our innovation results and to forge new cooperation with more partners,” Wang said.

Huo Jianguo, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said China has made great achievements in expanding market entry, and as it vows to promote institutional opening-up, the focus for the next phase will include increasing the transparency and stability of administrative rules and regulations.

Huo said China needs to align rules and regulations on trade and investment with the high standards of the world, such as those adopted by the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which it has officially applied to join. 

More than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and industry-leading enterprises are participating for at least the second time, and the total number of participants has surpassed that of the previous expo. 

United States-based company DuPont sees itself as a beneficiary of the CIIE’s spillover effect. An intention to collaborate that surfaced during the inaugural CIIE in 2018 has materialized into a $30 million investment four years later.

“So we do see our business focuses to be highly aligned with China’s development agenda, which features innovation and sustainability,” said Zhang Yi, regional president of DuPont Asia-Pacific.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer sees the CIIE as a “bridge “between China and the rest of the world, with life science innovations being the backbone.

Werner Baumann, chairman of Bayer, said the company understands the significant role that the CIIE plays, not only as a trade fair, but also as an example of China’s substantial contribution to economic globalization.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at hewei@chinadaily.com.cn