CHINA INTERNATIONAL IMPORT EXPO
China's opening up to the world from the sixth session of the Expo
Xinhua News Agency
5 November 2023
Shanghai China
In Shanghai, the center of China's economy, the hall, the world's first import-themed national-level exhibition hall, is in full bloom like a giant four-leaf clover symbolizing luck and hope.
Against the backdrop of sluggish world economic recovery and headwinds to globalization, the China International Import Expo, which aims to promote all countries and parties to share China's large market and deepen international cooperation opportunities, will be held here again for the sixth consecutive year.
The exhibition area has been expanded several times, and it is still "hard to find", thousands of foreign companies organized delegations to attend the meeting, negotiated and signed contracts intensively, and the turnover has reached new highs... The continuous "CIIE story" and the continuous spillover "CIIE effect" will present to the world in a more visible way a pulsating China that is determined to expand the breadth and depth of opening up to the outside world and is committed to promoting the development of economic globalization in the direction of openness, inclusiveness, inclusiveness, balance and win-win.
On November 2, the internal exhibition work of the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai) has entered the final stage, photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiang
Confidence
On Monday, they were milked at New Zealand farms, processed in factories, and boarded at night; On Tuesday, it will be delivered to Shanghai for customs clearance and delivery to the tables of Chinese consumers on Wednesday. Theland Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer, Stanley Sheng, said: "This bottle of fresh milk with '72-hour customs clearance' is a testament to China's trade facilitation. ”
This year's CIIE, on the basis of 19 support policies such as customs clearance facilitation, has added a new measure: allowing animal and plant products and food products and foods that have not been quarantined from countries (regions) without animal and plant epidemics to enter the exhibition after being approved by the concession.
accelerate the development of new business forms and models such as cross-border e-commerce; strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights; Guide more foreign investment in advanced manufacturing, modern service industry, high-tech and other fields... The innovative measures announced at previous CIIE are releasing dividends in customs commodity inspection, financial services, and cross-border sales.
"I once again feel China's determination and courage to adhere to a high level of opening up and continuously promote high-quality development." Wearing the badge of "sixth grader" at the Expo, Tao Lin, vice president of Tesla, said that it was under the condition that China relaxed the restrictions on foreign ownership that Tesla was able to become China's first wholly foreign-owned vehicle enterprise.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of reform and opening up and the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the pilot free trade zone. In January, 239 entries were added to the new edition of the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, reaching a record high. In June, in five pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port, the relevant international high-standard economic and trade rules were docked on a pilot basis; In October, China announced eight actions to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
From US$57.83 billion in the first session to US$73.52 billion in the fifth, the rising intent to trade in previous editions shows the firm confidence of CIIE exhibitors. According to the data, from January to August this year, China's newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased by 33% year-on-year, and the actual use of foreign capital in the manufacturing industry increased by 6.8% year-on-year
"We will never miss the new opportunities in China's economic recovery and acceleration of opening up and transformation." Guan Huili, President of Cargill China, said that this year brought new products such as the "Digital Gathering Specialized Jia" pig farm digital intelligence solution specially developed for Chinese customers, "Through the Expo, Cargill has signed more than 11.1 billion US dollars of cooperation orders, and we are determined to grow together with the Chinese market."
Zhai Kun, a professor at Peking University's School of International Studies, said that the world's second-largest economy has taken the initiative to expand its opening up, which is to promote "global confidence" with "China's determination" and will inject the most scarce development certainty into international economic and trade cooperation at a low ebb.
On November 3, Shanghai Customs officers inspected and quarantined the first batch of Benin pineapples that entered China and participated in the 6th CIIE Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Yu
Win-Win
Crisscrossed by rivers and lakes, Guinea-Bissau in West Africa is one of the least developed countries in the world, with more than 80% of the population working in cashew-related industries. The small 18-square-meter free booth at last year's CIIE gave the locals a surprise and hope.
"The cashew nuts were quickly sold out, and even some Chinese companies were interested in investing in Guinea-Bissau." Guinea-Bissau's ambassador to China, Antonio Serifo Embalo, said that this year local companies will be present at the national comprehensive exhibition in the larger region.
Handmade wool carpets from Afghanistan, Tanzanian mustache... This year, around 100 exhibitors from 30 LDCs continued to enjoy the free booth policy. At the CIIE, they connected with the global industrial chain, supply chain and value chain, which contained the Chinese pattern and mind of "calculating the benefits of the world".
At the CIIE, Chinese local enterprises will also further optimize resource allocation and improve innovation capabilities and production efficiency. Zhejiang Xinao Textile Co., Ltd. has introduced intelligent spinning equipment from foreign enterprises such as Sant'Andre in Italy and Schlafhorst in Germany, and has successively put into production a number of high-end ecological spinning projects, which not only improves the stability of products, but also reduces human resource consumption.
"Green" tires, ultra-high-precision coordinate measuring machines, special flight defense additives for drones... More than 400 representative new products, new technologies and new services were unveiled, comprehensively presenting the international cutting-edge products, technologies and service trends, further meeting consumers' needs for a better life, and bringing opportunities for industrial upgrading in China and even the world.
From January to September this year, China's service imports reached 2,846.01 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.4 percent. In 2022, China's total imports reached US$2.7 trillion, accounting for nearly 11% of the world's total imports.
China has taken the initiative to expand imports, which has led to the increase of production, population employment and household income in other countries, and has made important contributions to optimizing the allocation of global production factors and expanding the global production possibility curve.
"China is particularly good at building bridges." At the first CIIE, Christine Lagarde, then Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, pointed out that the CIIE will inevitably become a bridge of prosperity, marking China's promotion of the transformation of the global trade pattern, which is beneficial to China and the world.
On September 17, the container terminal of Yangshan Port in Shanghai. Shanghai has entered the "time to enter the Expo" and will welcome guests from all over the world with the best attitude Xinhua News Agency (photo by Wang Yiming)
Enlightenment
"Open and build plugs for openness, break the darkness for light, and be happy with real human feelings." This thousand-year-old sentence carved on the cliff stone in Yongzhou tells the truth that the Chinese nation cherishes openness and cooperation, and also tells the internal logic of globalization to overcome difficulties.
At present, the role of traditional growth engines in stimulating the economy has weakened, and new economic growth points have not yet been fully formed. As the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Georgieva said, to solve the current development problems in the world, we need more platforms for cooperation and dialogue such as the CIIE.
China has signed more than 230 Belt and Road cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations. Promote the entry into force and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade agreement; Continue to promote China's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement. China's commitment to high-level opening-up will surely bring more opportunities to the world.
"From growth contributions, trade contributions, poverty alleviation contributions, green contributions, development experience contributions, and social governance experience contributions, China is fighting back against headwinds and leading the trend." Haili Türk, a professor of economics at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the United States, said that China trades goods and services with the world, but exchanges culture and ideas.
"Thank you Chinese for your friendliness!" Early in the morning of the 4th, the jute handicraft booth of Bangladesh Dada Company has been arranged, and the concern of "unfamiliar life" when participating in the first CIIE has been dispelled.
As early as more than a month ago, the contracted exhibition area of the 7th CIIE has exceeded 40,000 square meters. L'Oréal was one of the first companies to sign a contract.
The President of L'Oréal North Asia and CEO of L'Oréal China, Français Fabre, wants to use the Chinese concept to add a footnote to the "Can't Wait for the Iron Fan Campaign": We want to be part of a community with a shared future for mankind, just like the theme of the CIIE says – a new era, a shared future.
Xinhua News Agency: Ma Xinran, Xu Xiaoqing, Zhou Rui