A city view of Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province Photo: VCG

A total of 93,000 buyers from 215 countries and regions have completed pre-registration for the spring session of China Import and Export Fair this year, and more than 220 leading enterprises and industry and commercial institutions have confirmed they're sending delegations to participate in the fair, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen told a press conference on Monday. 

These figures have exceeded those of previous sessions, the official noted, as China vows to expand high-level opening-up to share its development dividends with the world.

According to Wang, this session of China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, will be held in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province from April 15 to May 5.

The online platform operates regularly throughout the year.

The exhibition area of this session of the Canton Fair reaches 1.55 million square meters, and 28,600 enterprises will participate in the export exhibition, with more than 4,300 new exhibitors. A total of 680 enterprises will take part in the import exhibition of the fair, Wang said.

Wang noted that more than 1 million new products are expected to be displayed, with more than 450,000 green products and more than 250,000 products with independent intellectual property rights, all of which are up from the previous session.

The fair will further enrich the exhibition topics of digital technology and intelligent manufacturing, with the number of related exhibitors reaching nearly 3,600. 

These companies will exhibit more than 90,000 intelligent products including brain-computer interfaces, intelligent bionic hands, automatic navigation and transportation equipment, and artificial intelligence (AI) translators. More than 50 percent of the exhibitors actively apply digital technologies such as AI and big data analysis to transform their production operations, Wang said.

"Through the Canton Fair and other platforms, China has provided the world with a large number of high-quality products with strong competitiveness and stable supply, helping countries, especially developing ones, to realize industrialization, and enhancing the resilience and stability of supply and industry chains of the region and the global industry chain," Wang noted.

A survey by the ministry showed that more than 80 percent of exhibitors have met more suppliers through the Canton Fair, 64 percent of exhibitors have found more suitable supporting service providers, and 62 percent have obtained more efficient production alternatives.

Since its inception, more than 9.3 million overseas merchants have participated in the fair, with 195 global partners, vigorously promoting trade between China and other countries. 

In order to facilitate overseas buyers, the visa processing and issuance time for 90 percent of the embassies and consulates abroad has been shortened to four working days, the vice minister said.

Innovation dynamics, digital intelligence and high quality feature at this year's fair, which is in line with the country's commitment to promoting high-quality opening-up as well as new quality productive forces. 

The 2024 Government Work Report noted that the country will work to steadily increase the volume and raise the quality of foreign trade. Major trade events will be hosted, such as the China Import and Export Fair, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the Global Digital Trade Expo.

Chinese customs data showed that in the first two months of the year, China's foreign trade hit a record high of 6.61 trillion yuan ($918.3 billion), up 8.7 percent year-on-year, beating forecasts and showing a positive start to the new year.

Global Times