Visitors tour around the first China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan Province over the weekend. Photo: VCG

The 2nd China International Consumer Products Expo, scheduled for later this month in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province, will see an increase in exhibitor and brand numbers and a more internationalized participation, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday.

The success of the first expo attracted wide attention both at home and abroad. The second expo, scheduled for July 26-30, has seen a rise in the number of exhibiting businesses and brands from the inaugural expo, MOFCOM Spokesperson Shu Jueting told a regular news conference. 

The exhibition area has been expanded from last year's 80,000 square meters to 100,000 square meters this year, with more than 40,000 purchasers estimated to attend the forthcoming expo, Shu said.

In addition, this year's participation will be more international, with overseas businesses' attendance as a percentage of overall participation in terms of exhibition area edging to 80 percent from last year's 75 percent, the spokesperson revealed. 

The exhibition area of Japan, France and US participants, among other countries has hit around 3,000 square meters each. Members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership register an increase of nearly 20 percent in exhibition area compared with the inaugural expo.

The first expo was held in May 2021, with businesses from a total of 70 countries and regions attending the four-day event. A total of 2,628 brands of 1,505 firms from home and abroad participated in the event, according to Xinhua. 

The expo, a first-of-its-kind tradeshow held by China to focus on premium consumer goods at the national level, attracted over 240,000 visitors.

A slew of reports and indexes as regards consumption and construction of the Hainan free trade port will be unveiled at the upcoming expo, Shu announced.

The Hainan expo, a showcase of domestic and international consumer items, will help anchor consumer trends and needs toward a focus on greenness, healthiness and quality, she said, adding that the event is set to push for Hainan's vision to build itself into an international tourism consumption hub and a free trade port.

The consumer products expo, among other pro-consumption events and activities, is set to foster an accelerated recovery and sustained growth in the domestic consumer market, boosting the role of consumption as a driver for economic circulation, the MOFCOM spokesperson remarked.  

In a fresh move to rev up consumption, the MOFCOM and other 16 government departments on Thursday announced a range of measures aimed at boosting auto sales.

Buoyed by car purchase incentives, the auto sector recorded a rally of over 5 percent on the Chinese mainland stock exchange on Thursday. By comparison, the flagship Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.27 percent.

Social retail sales fell by 6.7 percent in May from the year before, narrowing from a plunge of 11.1 percent in April, showed data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Global Times