A person tries virtual reality equipment at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing on Thursday. The event, which wraps up on Wednesday, is China's first major in-person gathering in international trade since the start of the global pandemic. Photo: cnsphoto

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to deliver a speech on Friday at the Global Trade in Services Summit of this year's China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) - the first major international trade fair since the coronavirus pandemic is controlled in the country.

The opening of the fair is expected to showcase to the world China's pledges to continue opening-up and its increasing role in stabilizing global trade that has been battered by the virus, industry observers said. 

The successful holding of the event also shows that business activities are back to normal after the country's effective handling of the COVID-19 epidemic. 

The CIFTIS will be held at the China National Convention Center in Beijing from Friday to September 9. International and domestic exhibitors have shown strong enthusiasm for the event , and the number of participating companies and scale have both exceeded previous years, said officials of China's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

This year's show will use a combination of online and in-person methods based on the requirements of coronavirus prevention and control, and the trend toward digital exhibitions.

Photo: Li Hao/GT

 
More than 100 guests including heads of international organizations, senior government officials, and ambassadors to China confirmed their participation as of end-August. Over 70 executives with 43 Fortune 500 companies and 20 multinational companies including Ericsson, IBM, SAP, Philips, Siemens, Schneider and Dell have confirmed their participation. 

Twenty heads of international organizations, including the president of the International Banking Federation, the secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the vice president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will take part in online conferences.

Nearly 60 heads of overseas trade associations including the American Chamber of Commerce in China, the Canada-China Business Association, the China-Britain Business Association, and the Federation of German Industries have confirmed their participation.

According to Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan, China's imports of services will exceed $10 trillion in the next 15 years, and China's services market will open wider.

"We will further promote the relaxation of market access in the services sector and support the liberalization of global services trade," Wang said.

The fair reaffirms China's commitment to opening-up and is also an embodiment of the country's "dual circulation" policy, which highlighted the importance of both external and internal economic activities, analyst said.

"It shows the world that China's door will open wider despite the coronavirus and the tensions with the US. The global economy could benefit a lot from China's rebounding domestic demand, making the country the stabilizer of the world economy this year," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

Cong noted that the holding of the fair, the first exhibition of such a size in the world since the coronavirus outbreak, also shows that the country is balancing economic development with epidemic prevention in the right way, which sets an example for other economies. 

CIFTIS has been successfully held for six consecutive years. It has attracted a cumulative 10,000 companies, as well as 300 international organizations and foreign business associations from 184 countries and regions, achieving an estimated turnover of $529.33 billion.