On November 5, the 9th China International Import Expo kicked off at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai).
Entering its ninth year, the CIIE remains alluring, with many indicators such as scale, quality, and participation reaching record highs. 162 countries, regions and international organizations participated, 4,142 overseas companies participated in the exhibition, the overall area exceeded 440,000 square meters for the first time, and the number of Fortune 500 and industry leading companies exceeded 300 for the first time. Together we went to the CIIE, and the international community cast a "vote of confidence" in China.
Advancing with the times and being renewed over the past nine years, the CIIE continues to expand opening up, improve services, innovate scenarios, and set a stage for the world to share China's opportunities.
National development, capacity expansion and quality improvement
Provide new space for “new faces” to display
This year’s CIIE has expanded its national exhibition capacity and improved its quality, with 65 countries and 4 international organizations participating. Among them, Moldova, Romania, Seychelles, Gabon, Somalia, and the United Nations Development Program are the "new faces" participating in the exhibition for the first time.
This year's CIIE launched for the first time an "rights package" exclusive to the guest of honor country and the annual "Export to China" theme country, creating a new model of "in-hall display + city linkage outside the hall", extending the display from the exhibition hall to Shanghai's urban space. During the CIIE, a series of docking activities will be held to organize buyers to purchase products from the “Export to China” theme countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Kazakhstan, Kenya, and Thailand.
Robert Mitrofan, chief representative of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, said that this year is the first time Romania has made a systematic appearance at the CIIE in the form of a national pavilion. "It is not only an additional booth, but also the first time that a national image has entered China's opening door." The Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has established a Shanghai representative office to undertake three functions: market access consultation, assisting county-level business associations in connecting with the Yangtze River Delta, and serving as a "trust portal" for small and medium-sized enterprises. At present, more than 60 Romanian companies and institutions have paid attention to CIIE-related activities. Wine has entered supermarkets, mineral water has entered hotels, new energy has entered parks, and auto parts have entered the supply chain. The goal has shifted from "short-term exhibition participation" to "long-term operation."
We will continue to expand unilateral opening up and fully implement zero-tariff measures for African countries that have diplomatic relations with China, and they will be implemented at the 9th China International Import Expo. The Asian and African products area has been comprehensively upgraded, and the free booth area provided to the least developed countries has increased by 17%, encouraging more countries in the global south to make good use of the CIIE platform.
Sing a strong message of win-win cooperation and enrich the supply of international public goods. The ninth CIIE will release the "World Openness Report" and the latest World Openness Index for the sixth consecutive year to provide research reference for global opening up, and set up a special chapter "China Opportunities 2.0" to showcase the new opportunities brought by China's high-level opening up during the "15th Five-Year Plan". The "Exporting to China Capacity Development Report" was released for the first time, focusing on sharing the Chinese market, helping more countries, especially countries in the global south, to improve their export capabilities to China and turn opportunities in the Chinese market into development gains.
Enterprise exhibition professionalization upgrade
Innovation is increasingly flowing in both directions
The Enterprise Exhibition of the 9th China International Import Expo continues the "6+1" pattern and continues to set up six major exhibition areas including technical equipment, consumer goods, agricultural and food products, automobiles and smart travel, medical equipment and medicine and health care, and service trade, as well as an innovation incubation area. The degree of specialization has been comprehensively upgraded, the features are stronger, and the brand effect is stronger. New productivity has gathered momentum, and black technology and hard technology have appeared on the same stage. Leading companies in the computing hardware and semiconductor chain, world-renowned semiconductor chip companies, industrial electrical companies and elevator companies collectively participated in the exhibition.
The medical equipment and medicine and health care exhibition area brings together 12 of the world's top 500 pharmaceutical companies. 16 of the world's top 20 pharmaceutical companies participate in the exhibition. The world's top three medical imaging companies and the top three radiotherapy equipment companies participate in the exhibition. The scale of the exhibition reaches a new high.
"Quality student" Bayer brings nearly 30 first exhibitions this time. At previous CIIEs, Bayer has witnessed a number of innovative achievements "from exhibits to commodities": several drugs have gradually expanded from their initial single indication to multiple indications, and imaging diagnostic high-pressure injection systems have gradually realized localized production from imported products.
Bill Anderson, chairman of the Bayer Group Management Committee, said that when he first participated in the exhibition, he viewed the CIIE more as a window to bring global innovation into China; now, the CIIE has become an important stage for Bayer's global innovation network. Bayer has deployed 6 R&D and innovation centers in China to connect innovators, scientific researchers, entrepreneurs and industry partners to jointly solve problems and benefit patients. In addition, innovation is increasingly flowing in both directions - bringing global experience to China and pushing Chinese innovation to the world.
A Canadian leather and shoe care brand with a century-old history, exquisite tea sets loved by British consumers, Thai healing fragrances originating from the jasmine scent of grandmother’s clay pots... This CIIE is the first to set up a global national brand display area in the consumer goods exhibition area and agricultural and food products exhibition area, helping global good things to enter thousands of Chinese households. The Hongqiao International Economic Forum also opened two sub-forums, "High-level opening up to improve people's livelihood and well-being - World delicacies on China's table" and "Consumption renewal: new scenarios, new supplies and new growth". Theory and practice confirmed each other, and explored the path for global high-quality goods to connect with China's large market.
The service trade exhibition area is the only "non-physical" exhibition area at the CIIE. This year, four special areas have been set up: financial innovation, professional services, exhibition and cultural tourism, and logistics ecology, and a new themed exhibition line of "One-stop Global Services Expo" has been created.
The Innovation Incubation Zone presents innovative practices and brings together overseas incubators, innovation departments of multinational giants and hard technology start-ups to create an open, diversified and sustainable innovation incubation ecosystem. BMW China R&D Center, Boston Scientific, Biotech and Wanjiang Innovation Center have settled in the special area, demonstrating the efforts of traditional industry giants to lay out new tracks.
Michelin participated in the CIIE for the sixth time with the theme of "Towards Innovation and Advance Together", not only presenting Michelin's sustainable innovation results, but also the Chinese industry peers behind the innovation. Ye Fei, head of Michelin's China business, said: "Since entering China 37 years ago, Michelin's connection with Chinese industries has become deeper and deeper. From serving consumers' daily travel to supporting customers' professional transportation and operations; from introducing global innovation to continuing to improve local R&D, manufacturing and service capabilities, Michelin actively responds to new demands put forward by the Chinese market and continues to explore new answers."
"The CIIE is no longer just a commodity trading platform, but also an important carrier to achieve deep integration of commodities, technology, and industries." Tang Yunyi, deputy director and researcher of the Institute of Applied Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the key to developing new productive forces lies in promoting the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation.
Institutional innovation becomes the norm
New scenarios to accelerate the implementation of CIIE results
On October 26, Vitifa, an Italian jewelry company that is “Qualin Qinsheng”, opened its CIIE preview at the Bonded Warehouse of the Bund Financial Center in Shanghai. "In the past, exhibits at the CIIE had to be locked up and sealed, making it impossible to connect with customers in advance. This year, after the exhibits are settled in the Bund Financial Center bonded warehouse, they can be previewed in a bonded state and business docked in advance, extending the trade dividend of the six-day exhibition period of the CIIE by nearly half a month." Chen Haiyan, the person in charge of the company, said that after the opening of the CIIE, these goods will enter the "Clover", the main venue of the CIIE, through the "CIIE Express Train" for display.
The "CIIE Express" is a green channel built by Shanghai Customs between the central business district of Shanghai and the main venue of the CIIE. It was approved by the General Administration of Customs last year and was first piloted in the bonded warehouse in the Huangpu District business district. This year, the pilot has become normalized, and all qualified bonded warehouses in Shanghai can be directly connected to the CIIE venue to carry out bonded display transactions.
On November 2, the Shanghai Hongqiao Greenland International Expo OPC Community opened at the Greenland Global Commodity Trading Port across the road from the "Four Leaf Clover". Zhang Yuliang, chairman and president of Greenland Group, said that the community will promote the in-depth integration of "CIIE + AI (artificial intelligence)" and introduce professional teams around the needs of overseas brands in market analysis, product content production, brand promotion and channel operations to help CIIE exhibits better adapt to the consumption characteristics and channel ecology of the Chinese market.
“The CIIE is the launch venue for global new products, and Shanghai will be the launch venue for global new products,” said Lu Shan, deputy mayor of Shanghai. The first CIIE was held in 2018, and in the same year Shanghai proposed to create a global launch site for new products. Through the nation's first facilitation measures for inspection of first-release imported consumer goods, the customs clearance time for imported goods has been shortened from a minimum of 7 days to the fastest release on the same day, promoting the rapid launch of more than 30,000 first-release new products. Focusing on institutional innovation, financial support, and supporting facilities, Shanghai has attracted more than 1,700 high-energy first stores from around the world, Asia, and the country. In the past eight years, Shanghai's first-launch economy has realized an iteration from 1.0 to 4.0. Taking over the spillover effects of the CIIE has evolved from promoting the implementation of exhibits to the common growth of the city and the exhibition.
During this CIIE, Shanghai will simultaneously create a series of "New Trends for CIIE Launches" activities, and create new product launch scenes at "second sites" such as the Lujiazui Lu-link global consumer boutique display base and the Zhangyuan global debut platform.
Openness gathers strength, innovation empowers, and the ninth China International Import Expo is expected to achieve fruitful results.
Our reporter Tian Hong
