Canton Fair: Guangzhou plays big role in China's mission to boost trade

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Shanghai may be getting all the attention this week, but not to be outshone is Canton Fair. 61 years in the running, it's China's largest trade show and is held in Guangzhou. The city is a pillar of China's plan to turn its southernmost mega-cities into a "Greater Bay Area" to rival the Japanese capital, Tokyo, and the American cities of San Francisco and New York.

Serdar Uyan is a merchant from Turkey.

At the 124th Canton Fair in Guangzhou, Turkish kitchen utilities, such as stoves and freezers are hot merchandisers.

SERDAR UYAN TURKISH MERCHANT "For the most famous exhibition in the world, the Canton Fair is a global meeting point. We can meet other exhibitors. We can reach new customers, potential customers from all over the world."

Statistics show that over the past 10 years, more than 12,000 overseas sellers have come to the Canton Fair.

It is now becoming a truly global marketing platform and a testament to China's opening-up program.

And in Guangzhou, commodities are not the only things for sale.

The city is quickly becoming a market for human talent.

The city has issued more than 9,000 work permits to foreign professionals and technical personnel and this year, that number is expected to exceed 10,000.

YIN TAO DEAN, GUANGZHOU URBAN STRATEGY INSTITUTE "Openness has become the gene of the city. Guangzhou aims to build an open transportation network, an open business environment, an open talent system, and an open industrial system. This is to achieve high-quality development, and to provide the foundation for our goal of building an international metropolis."

Up to now, 34,000 foreign-invested enterprises have settled in the southern China metropolis.

While Guangzhou enterprises are now operating in dozens of countries and regions around the world.

It's certainly setting the bar for other Chinese cities in how to build an open, strong and modern economy.

Xia Cheng, CGTN.