On October 29, MOFCOM held a briefing for Chinese and foreign media. Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative Fu Ziying introduced President Xi Jinping's attendance at the opening ceremony of the first China International import Expo (CIIE). Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan answered questions from the media.
Fu Ziying said the CIIE was proposed and announced to the world by China’s President in person. After careful preparations, the first CIIE will be held in Shanghai in November 5th-10th. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and hold related activities. At that time, politicians, business leaders and heads of relevant international organizations from about 150 countries and regions will attend the CIIE upon invitation.
Fu Ziying said that on November 4th, Xi Jinping and his wife will hold a welcome banquet. On the morning of November 5th, President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony, deliver a keynote speech, and visit the Country Pavilion with Chinese and foreign leaders. During the CIIE, President Xi Jinping will meet with heads of states and government leaders.
Fu Ziying said that as the world's first large-scale national-level expo is themed on import, the CIIE includes exhibitions and forum. The exhibitions are the Country Pavilion for Trade and Investment (referred to as the Country Pavilion) and the Enterprise and Business Exhibition (referred to as the Enterprise Exhibition). The forum is the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum. The Country Pavilion is an important part of the CIIE with 71 booths set up by 82 countries and 3 international organizations and covers an area of 30,000 square meters. The participating countries will exhibit their national images, economic and trade achievements and featured products. In the Country Pavilion, 12 guest countries of honor including Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Russia, UK, Hungary, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Mexico have set up featured pavilions. As the host country, we have established the China Pavilion, including exhibiting areas for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Guided by the vision for the innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, China Pavilion will exhibit the great achievements of China's reform and opening up and the new opportunities brought by China’s development and joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. The Enterprise Exhibition has 7 exhibition areas and covers an area of 270,000 square meters. More than 3,000 enterprises from more than 130 countries have signed up for the exhibition. Exhibitors will bring high-quality and featured products, find business opportunities and deepen cooperation through exhibitions and negotiations, enrich the Chinese market and meet the diversified needs of consumers.
Fu Ziying said that themed on “spurring new vitality of global trade, creating an open and win-win scenario”, the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum consists of a opening ceremony and three parallel forums. The opening ceremony on the morning of November 5 is for both the CIIE and the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum. The topics of the three parallel forums are “trade and opening,” “trade and innovation,” and “trade and investment.” Each forum includes guest speeches and panel discussions on the key issues of current global economic and trade development: advancing the new drivers for economic globalization and trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, promoting trade innovation and development with new technology and new business models, and revitalizing investment to stimulate new vitality of trade growth. By then, attending will be more than 2,000 participants including government officials, heads of international organization, well-known entrepreneurs, experts and scholars from more than 130 countries and regions. The Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum will be another important platform for discussing critical global issues.
Fu Ziying said that President Xi Jinping has emphasized several times that China International import Expo is not an ordinary exhibition and it is required to be made as a first rank international expo. We believe that China International import Expo will become an open cooperation platform for the countries worldwide to show their national images and conduct international trade, and it will be a public product which promotes economic globalization.
First, China International import Expo will contribute to the economic globalization. China International import Expo shows China’s determination of expanding opening up, advocates opening up and inclusiveness, mutual benefits and win-win results, and gains strong response, wide recognition and active participation of the countries all over the world. Hongqiao Economic and Trade Forum will send out the strong voice of time, which is the voice of safeguarding free trade, promoting economic globalization and developing open global economy.
Second, China International import Expo will create conditions for the countries to deepen economic and trade cooperation. China International import Expo invites enterprises from different countries to participate in it, and gathers new products, new technologies and high-quality products worldwide. It is China’s best exhibition in terms of the number and value amount. China International import Expo supports the other countries to take the express of Chinese development, and also builds a platform for the countries to conduct trade and cooperation.
Third, China International import Expo will broaden channels to satisfy the demands of people’s beautiful life. The products of this expo not only include quality agricultural products and food, but also high-end medicine and health products like medical apparatuses and instruments and new anticancer medicines. According to the registration of the exhibitors, the number of exhibits entering China for the first time reaches more than 5,000. Consumers and enterprises could experience high quality and inexpensive commodities without leaving the country, and fully enjoy the benefits brought by globalization, which will satisfy the domestic demands for consumption upgrading and promote the high quality development of China’s economy.
Fourth, China International import Expo will inject vitality for China’s reform and opening up. To run the expo well, the relevant departments have amended and optimized related management mechanism, introduced a series of policies and measures including those for customs facilitation and services guarantee. These measures will accumulate new experience and explore new routes for the reform and opening up in the related sections.
Fu Ziying said that we will join hands with related parties and make joint efforts to make sure that the first China International import Expo will conclude successfully and become an international top-ranking expo.
