People's Forum Online Review | Importing good things into the Expo, from "gathering" to "keeping"
On November 10, the 9th China International Import Expo came to a successful conclusion in Shanghai. Entering its ninth year, the CIIE remains alluring, with many indicators such as scale, quality, and participation reaching record highs. The overall exhibition area exceeded 440,000 square meters for the first time, with 162 countries, regions and international organizations participating, 4,142 overseas companies participating, and the number of Fortune 500 and industry leading companies exceeding 300 for the first time. In addition to the records, what is more worthy of attention is the change in the connotation of opening up: the value dimension of China's opening up is extending from the economic and trade exchanges gathered at the exhibition booth to the long-term industrial symbiosis.
The yardstick for evaluating the CIIE is changing. In the past, the scale of the exhibition hall, the main exhibitors, and the world's first new products were the intuitive highlights; now, "exhibits become commodities, and exhibitors become investors" attract more attention. Singaporean beauty brand Fengti started with a standard booth of 9 square meters in the first exhibition. This year, it won an independent booth of 150 square meters and has laid out offline stores in Shanghai. Opening up is not a simple product exhibition and sales, the ability to implement is increasingly important. The first measures to facilitate the inspection of imported consumer goods have been implemented, and the customs clearance time has been shortened from the original minimum of 7 days to the fastest release on the same day; the "6 days + 365 days" year-round exhibition and sales mechanism continues to operate, and customs clearance convenience, intellectual property protection, and post-exhibition support have become new directions of development. The speed at which exhibits are transformed into commodities tests the quality of institutional openness; whether exhibitors are willing to stay and invest is a measure of the temperature of a place’s business environment.
The influence of the CIIE has already overflowed into the "Four-leaf Clover" pavilion. Negotiations and signings during the six-day exhibition period are only the starting point for cooperation. Exhibits leaving the exhibition hall, entering stores, landing in factories, and integrating into the industrial chain are the parts that deserve more attention. Wärtsilä Qiyao has participated in the exhibition for four consecutive years. During this CIIE, it signed a contract with Shanghai Lingang Green Innovation and launched the first industrial green microgrid demonstration project integrating diesel storage, light and charging in the Lingang New Area, moving from technology display and product trade to industrial investment and industrial ecological co-construction. doTERRA received large orders at a small 9-square-meter booth at the first CIIE. It will set up a R&D center in Shanghai in 2022 and will debut a "double booth" this year. This exhibition brought perilla aromatherapy essential oil produced in Hunan, changing its status from an overseas product introducer to a co-construction partner of the local industrial chain. Exhibits are put on the shelves of supermarkets, exhibitors are deploying projects in various places, and the first technology is connected with industrial partners. A chain from the booth to the market and from the exhibition to the industry is gradually taking shape.
Reverse customization changes the purchasing logic from "sell what is available" to "customize products according to consumer needs." Innovative equipment in the medical exhibition area is introduced into the hospital, special agricultural products in the food exhibition area are served on the dining table, and cutting-edge technologies in the equipment exhibition area are connected to the production workshop. The CIIE no longer pursues "all-inclusiveness", but targets real needs to create implementable and replicable cooperation results. Only by allowing technology supply to match market orders and allowing openness commitments to achieve development results can the CIIE bridge the "last mile" from the booth to the market.
Openness is the cornerstone of cooperation, and implementation is the destination of win-win results. Through the window of the CIIE, what people see is not only the concentrated appearance of good products from around the world, but also a mature posture of continuous iteration of the exhibition platform and deepening cooperation. Turn each openness commitment into a visible and tangible reality, and let the gathering of booths lead to industrial symbiosis.
