Officials offer a briefing at a special press conference for the Canton Fair hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce on October 10, 2024. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

The 136th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) will be held in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, from October 15 to November 4, with the scale and level of participating companies remaining high, officials announced at a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

To promote high-quality international trade and contribute to a new chapter in business modernization with Chinese characteristics, the fair is themed "serving high-quality development and promoting high-level opening-up," said Chu Shijia, deputy director and secretary general of the fair.

The exhibition will cover a total area of 1.55 million square meters, with 74,000 booths, focusing on advanced manufacturing, interior decoration and better lifestyles, according to Chu.

One highlight of the exhibition is the number of businesses participating online - about 48,000, or 60 percent more than the previous session held in April, marking a record high, Chu said.

The on-site exhibition features more than 30,000 participating companies, including 29,400 export exhibitors, an increase of nearly 800 compared with the previous fair, Chu said. 

Many new enterprises, products, technologies and business models have registered for the fair, including nearly 4,600 exhibitors that are taking part for the first time. 

More than 8,000 companies that are representatives of the nation's high-tech manufacturing are attending, representing a rise of more than 40 percent from the last fair.

The previous session, the 135th Canton Fair, was held in Guangzhou in April. 

The session saw nearly 250,000 overseas buyers, a historic high. Chu said that the scale is expected to be similar at the upcoming fair.

Indicators such as pre-registrations, hotel bookings and flight reservations suggest that "the 136th Canton Fair is expected to achieve stable quantity and improved quality for overseas buyers," Chu said.

Overseas buyer pre-registrations are robust, Chu said. As of Wednesday, 125,000 overseas buyers had registered, with 75.7 percent coming from partner countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the organizer.

The registered overseas buyers are from 203 countries and regions, with the largest numbers from leading industry sectors like electronics, machinery and textiles.

Global Times