Arancha González, the executive director of the International Trade Centre in Shanghai, used three “S” - share, sustainability, signal - to describe the China International Import Expo (CIIE) on Sunday.

With the theme of “New Era, Shared Future," CIIE, the world's first large-scale expo to center on imports, has been branded as part of China's ongoing efforts to support economic globalization and trade liberalization.

Arancha stressed the importance of import, considering that “this fair is about creating a shared future.”

“We need to make sure that trade works for everybody, not just for the one percent,” Arancha said, noting sustainability is a big focus for both the international trade center and the expo.

In addition, the import expo is a signal that China “wants to keep its doors open to the world,” according to Arancha, indicating China will continue to be not only the factory but also the market of the world in the future.

“This is a nice bridge between the import and the Belt and Road Initiative. Hence these new three essays apply very well to two of them," she added.