China is fostering a new development paradigm with the domestic market as the mainstay and the domestic and international markets reinforcing each other. The 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE), which lifted its curtains on Tuesday in east China's Shanghai City, is believed to be a boost for the strategy. 

The 4th CIIE is scheduled to be held offline from November 5 to 10, with more than 200 exhibitors and over 500 purchasers participating in the expo this year.  

As the first dedicated import exhibition globally, the expo has become a major platform for international procurement, investment promotion, and cultural exchange, and has yielded fruitful outcomes from the past three expos. 

China's new development paradigm 

To sustain growth, China is pushing a "dual circulation" development paradigm, which has been mentioned as a guiding thought in a blueprint for its development in the next five to 15 years. 

"China will advance the building of a strong domestic market and a strong trading nation in a concerted way, based on the domestic circulation," read the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. 

For domestic circulation, the outline noted that China will deepen its supply-side structural reform and innovate its modes of production to provide high-quality products and services.  

Meanwhile, the country will strive to become a strong magnet for global resources and production factors, promote the coordinated development of domestic and external demand, imports and exports, as well as foreign and outbound investment, according to the outline. 

Why does the CIIE matter to China? 

Through the CIIE, China offers a platform for Chinese consumers to access products from overseas markets. 

As the world's second-largest economy, China has a population of over 1.4 billion and an expanding middle class of over 400 million people, offering a supersized market growing faster than any other country on Earth, said a white paper titled "China's Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity" released in September. 

Some 1.3 million buyers have attended the first three expos. Each year, participating organizations ink billions of dollars in deals at the CIIE, and the numbers continue to grow with each event. Over the past three years, over $200 billion in deals have been signed, according to CIIE's official website. 

Following these deals, a total of 319 projects from the first two expos, backed by foreign investment worth $15 billion, have been initiated and successfully launched in China. 

"The CIIE has become an important platform for inland provinces such as Jiangxi to further open up and improve their economic development quality," said Liang Yonghong, deputy head of the foreign trade development bureau of the province's commerce department, adding that the introduction of high-end equipment, high-quality products and services will enhance the development level of their local economy. 

The success of the previous CIIE sessions has also helped China jump in the global business environment ranking. 

In 2020, China took 31st place among 190 economies in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings, rising from 91st place in 2012, according to the white paper. 

CIIE bolsters China's opening-up 

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the CIIE is an important decision made by China to pursue a new round of high-level opening-up, and is China's major initiative to widen market access for the rest of the world, during his keynote speech at 2018's CIIE. 

Thousands of exhibitors and hundreds of thousands of buyers from across the globe have descended on Shanghai in the past three years to reap the benefits offered by the expo. 

Zhang Yugui, dean of the school of economics and finance at Shanghai International Studies University, said CIIE is a connector between international and domestic markets in the country's "dual circulation" development pattern. 

China has made progress in connecting its market to the global market at policy and legal levels in recent years, Zhang said, adding that the promulgation of the Foreign Investment Law, the signing of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the China-EU bilateral investment treaty represent efforts to tear down the barriers between the two markets. 

The CIIE provides extra benefits for companies entering China by offering special services that make doing business with Chinese partners as smooth as possible. The benefits cover consultancy, customs clearance, business registration, matchmaking and more.