(The 9th China International Import Expo) Scholars explain the path to release the spillover effects of the China International Import Expo, hoping that Shanghai will develop a two-way capability of “buying to the world and selling to the world”

China News Service, Shanghai, November 10 (Reporter Chen Jing) One of the Shanghai conference activities of the 2026 International Import Expo, the "Inspiring Cultural Travel Business, Consumption to New Industry" seminar was held on the 9th, and the "International Consumption Center City Assessment Index Report" and "Shanghai Business Development Report" (2026) were simultaneously released.

"The spillover effects of the CIIE are continuously released through the four paths of 'exhibits become commodities, exhibitors become investors, traffic becomes incremental, and display becomes innovation'." Tang Haiyan, counselor to the Shanghai Municipal Government and former president of Shanghai Business School, believes that the common premise of the four paths is to precipitate the opening-up effect into long-term functions of the city. The key to the transformation of Shanghai's trade opening level is not to host a few more exhibitions, but to precipitate the "one-time traffic" of the exhibition into "long-term systems and ecology."

He pointed out that the key step from "exhibits to commodities" relies on the combined system innovation of scenarios + customs clearance + finance, turning the advantages of openness into development advantages. "Shanghai must develop the two-way capability of 'buying and selling to the world'," Tang Haiyan said.

The newly released "International Consumption Center City Evaluation Index Report" (hereinafter referred to as the report) is based on a global perspective and constructs 5 evaluation dimensions and 20 secondary indexes: city popularity, market prosperity, business activity, consumption convenience, and innovation leadership, and selects 10 global typical consumption center cities for comparative evaluation.

Shanghai ranks among the top five in comprehensive evaluation among the 10 sample cities, and has the development conditions for a comprehensive and leading international consumption center city. Tang Haiyan believes that among the multiple factors driving the improvement of the level of international consumption centers, supply channels and institutional convenience come from "openness", and scale and scenarios come from "market". The two are superimposed in Shanghai. The report points out that Shanghai still has room for improvement in improving the scale effect of local leading retail companies and the international competitiveness of native brands, enhancing international connectivity and cross-border payment convenience, and strengthening the supply of innovative consumer technologies.

According to the report, the localization narrative of international consumption center cities further enhances the brand agglomeration and development potential of world-class landmark business districts; "all-scenario experiential business formats" and "all-weather composite consumption hubs", community symbiosis planning concepts are generally recognized; the iteration of urban stock consumption space is realized, and real estate investment trust funds (REITs) empower urban commercial transformation and improvement; the construction of city-level digital infrastructure or digital base is accelerated to strengthen full-link support for consumption links. In Tang Haiyan's view, Shanghai is a typical "import-oriented" trade hub, naturally connected to international consumption and supply. "Trade openness and consumption development are a two-way driven closed-loop chain. Today's reality is that trade determines sources and channels, and consumption feeds back design, brand and supply chain layout with demand," he pointed out.

He believes that Shanghai's next step should be to strengthen the overall coordination of trade and consumption, continue to optimize the international consumption environment, deepen the integration of culture, tourism, business and sports exhibitions, cultivate local brands and innovative entities, improve the evaluation and monitoring mechanism, and transform the advantages of openness into development advantages.

According to the "Shanghai Business Development Report" (2026) released that day, service consumption, silver consumption, pet consumption, night-time economy and first-time economy have become important growth points for Shanghai's business development. The report points out that embodied intelligence is moving from scene verification to stable operation.

Liu Wei, a second-level inspector of the Shanghai Municipal Commerce Commission, said that facing the future, Shanghai will focus on the in-depth integration of cultural, business, tourism and sports exhibitions to strengthen the six major consumption drivers of first-time, digital, entry, night, youth and silver. Based on inclusive and prudent supervision and diversified co-construction, we will seize the opportunity of the transition from "model intelligence" to "action intelligence", and let cutting-edge technologies such as embodied intelligence become an accelerator to stimulate new business and consumption momentum.

"The current consumer market is undergoing profound changes in the integration of business formats, digital innovation and demand iteration. Artificial intelligence is accelerating its penetration into the real economy and promoting in-depth integration of culture, tourism and business scenarios." said Zhang Shaohua, Vice President of Shanghai Business School.

"The commercialization of embodied intelligence must not only be able to perform actions, but also answer questions about whether the site can operate stably in the long term, whether it can coexist safely with people, and whether it can be operated and maintained." Yi Shuai, an elite from the enterprise, pointed out that AI is moving from generating content to completing tasks. Reasoning, multi-modality and tool use are converging, and the triple signals of model output actions, model running on the computer, and real task pilots have emerged.