China to provide more opportunities for world economy as import expo approaches

Thanks to the China International Import Expo (CIIE), Bangladeshi local jute handicrafts are brought to China and distributed worldwide through various sales channels within China.

The CIIE and Chinese market have improved Bangladeshi workers' lives and provided life-changing opportunities for local poor families, said Bangladeshi businessman Nurus Safa.

Safa has taken part in the expo for five years, and he hoped to meet more customers at the upcoming sixth CIIE running from November 5 to 10 in Shanghai.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the opening ceremony of the sixth CIIE on Sunday and deliver a keynote speech, a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson said on Friday.

Advancing Belt and Road cooperation

In the lead-up to the expo, a China-Europe freight train, having set out from Duisburg, Germany, carried exhibits for the expo and arrived in Shanghai on October 11.

As a symbolic project of Belt and Road cooperation, China-Europe freight train has reached 217 cities in 25 European countries, and about 77,000 trips have been made as of September.

The train has expanded the effect of the expo, opened up global trade, and witnessed the close interaction between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the CIIE.

Among the 72 national exhibitors of the sixth CIIE, 64 are BRI partner countries, said Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, at a press conference.

More than 1,500 companies from BRI partner countries have signed up for the enterprise exhibition, with their exhibition area totaling nearly 80,000 square meters, an increase of 30 percent from last year's event, Sun said.

For the least-developed BRI partner countries, the CIIE will help promote the entry of local specialty products into the Chinese market by providing free booths at the expo, and offering subsidies and preferential tax policies for the purchase of exhibits, Sun added.

Supporting an open world economy

As the world's inaugural import expo conducted at a national level, the CIIE also aspires to expand China's opening-up and transform its vast market into global opportunities.

To support an open world economy, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will enter into free trade agreements and investment protection treaties with more countries at the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October.

The country will remove all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, Xi said. 

Efforts will be made to further advance high-standard opening up in cross-border service trade and investment, expand market access for digital and other products, he noted.

An integral part of the CIIE, the sixth Hongqiao International Economic Forum will encompass the "Invest in China Year" Summit, the Press Conference and the International Symposium on World Openness Report 2023, which will include the unveiling of the World Openness Index.

Under the theme "Joining Hands in Development, Opening Up for the Future," the forum will host 22 parallel sessions on opening-up for development, cooperation, innovation and sharing.

Rodolfo Pastor de Maria, secretary of the presidency of Honduras, emphasized that China is a key driver of global trade and a crucial gateway to the Asian market for numerous Latin American countries. 

He added that the upcoming expo will provide Honduran companies with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the Chinese market and connect with importers and exporters from around the world.