(The 9th China International Import Expo) Chinese businessmen and overseas Chinese enterprises use the China International Import Expo to form a close open cooperation network

China News Service, Shanghai, November 7 (Fan Yubin) As one of the supporting activities of the 9th China International Import Expo, the 2026 "Overseas Chinese Connecting Five Continents·Shanghai CIIE" theme event was held at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai) on the 7th.

For the first time, this event invited overseas Chinese executives from the world's top 500 companies to participate in a round-table dialogue, set up an exhibition area for innovative projects from the overseas Chinese community, and organized a large-scale gathering of overseas Chinese guests to visit the exhibition for the first time, further establishing a network of overseas Chinese connections and exploring opportunities for the Expo.

Wang Linggui, chairman of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, said that overseas Chinese businessmen and enterprises have a two-way connection with the CIIE, and the continued and in-depth participation of overseas Chinese business leaders is promoting the CIIE to gradually become an important platform for open cooperation among the overseas Chinese community that integrates resource gathering, innovation display, and people-to-people exchanges.

The Indonesian Chinese Chamber of Commerce has been to the CIIE for the ninth time. Zhang Jinxiong, the general chairman of the chamber, said that the chamber is optimistic about the potential and long-term prospects of the Chinese market and will continue to use overseas Chinese as a bridge to promote more high-quality Indonesian products to enter the Chinese market through the CIIE platform. It will also help Chinese companies go overseas to Indonesia and deepen two-way trade, investment and cultural exchanges.

On November 7, the 2026 "Overseas Chinese Connecting Five Continents·Shanghai CIIE" themed event was held at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai). The picture shows the scene of the roundtable dialogue. Photo by Fan Yubin

During the roundtable dialogue, Liu Ling, member of the Global Executive Committee of Philips and President of Greater China, said that Philips, as a "full-time student" of the CIIE, has always brought the world's leading innovation results to China. The nine-year CIIE has also shown a clear trend - more and more local innovations originating from China are going global through this platform.

Shi An, President of Rockwell Automation (China) Co., Ltd., believes that the value of the CIIE does not lie in the display or signing of contracts within a limited time, but in continuously extending the connection between cross-border ecological partners and releasing more opportunities for the continuous docking of technological innovation, industrial needs and professional services.

"The CIIE is an important stage for SAP to introduce the world's cutting-edge management concepts and technologies and export China's local innovation results. It supports the company's full-cycle innovation promotion from cloud technology, Industry 4.0 to AI transformation." Cai Yanbin, global vice president of SAP and director of SAP China Research Institute, said that SAP recently proposed the vision of "autonomous operating enterprises" based on AI, and hopes to use the CIIE platform to explore implementation paths with partners from all walks of life.

This event is hosted by the China Federation of Overseas Chinese and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, and hosted by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Shanghai Federation of Overseas Chinese. More than 200 overseas Chinese leaders, Chinese business entrepreneurs, professionals and overseas Chinese youth representatives from more than 50 countries and regions participated in the event.