Photo:Xinhua

The China International Import Expo (CIIE), a major platform bearing witness to the country's uncompromising resolve to open up its economy, will greet its fifth edition with broader participation, according to the organizer on Tuesday.

The event, which is set to showcase more premium items from a longer list of global heavyweights, on the premise of well-designed virus containment plans, will inject much-needed optimism into the global economy, experts said. 

They are hoping for the event to exemplify the Chinese path to modernization as the economic recovery is envisioned to gain pace in spite of coronavirus flare-ups, rising geopolitical tensions and other headwinds. 

All preparatory work has been done for the fifth CIIE, Sun Chenghai, deputy head of the China International Import Expo Bureau, told a media briefing on Tuesday. The fifth imports expo is scheduled for November 5-10 in Shanghai.

A total of 145 countries, regions and international organizations have signed up for the fifth CIIE, including developed countries and developing countries, Sun said, speaking of wider participation this year.

Companies from 127 countries and regions will take part in the business and commercial exhibition while 66 countries and three international organizations are set to take the stage at the annual trade fair, outnumbering last year's participation.

In addition, there are businesses attending the event from all member economies of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The number of participating economies along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative and those that group the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is up in both cases from the previous fair, according to Sun.

Nicaragua, Djibouti, Iraq and Iceland are among eight nations to take part in the country exhibition for the first time this year.

That China is capable of hosting such an event in the face of COVID-19 flare-ups, lingering geopolitical tensions and other headwinds attests to the country's unfaltering role as a vital contributor to the global economy, Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Also at Tuesday's media briefing, Gu Honghui, deputy secretary general of the Shanghai municipal government, revealed the CIIE's epidemic prevention and containment plan. N95 or KN95 masks are mandatory for event participants entering the exhibition venues. 

Those traveling from abroad ought to be under medical observation at designated sites for seven days plus in-home health monitoring for three days, and corresponding nucleic acid tests are a must.

China has long seen its exports outshine imports, while the CIIE is on a path to reshape the country as a growing contributor to global imports, Cao said, reckoning the event will connect global suppliers of premium products and services and domestic consumers yearning for choice items.

As the country establishes itself as an unparalleled practitioner of indigenous development in the wake of the just-concluded 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CIIE is believed to convince the markets of the country's pursuit of high-quality growth on the basis of a dual circulation - domestic and international - strategy, the economist said.

In another sign of growing business interest in the trade fair, 284 Fortune Global 500 firms and industry majors are set to join in the business exhibition, topping the number for the last edition. 

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, held a roundtable conference centered on the just-concluded 20th National Congress of the CPC, and it discussed the latest implemented policies targeting foreign investment with senior representatives from more than 60 US enterprises in China, the American Chamber of Commerce in China, and the US-China Business Council on Tuesday, according to the NDRC's official WeChat.

The conference noted that China will continuously promote high-level opening-up, and it hoped that the participating enterprises would maintain their enthusiasm for investment in China, actively integrate into China's new development pattern, deeply participate in China's high-quality development process, and contribute to ensuring the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains and promoting a global economic recovery.

The event's six major exhibition areas will feature hundreds of new products, technologies and services, ranging from consumer products and farm produce to cutting-edge medical equipment and technological equipment, Sun told reporters. 

Special areas have been created this year where crops and seeds, artificial intelligence, low-carbon technologies, and innovation incubation will be on display. 

More than 150 start-ups in the spheres of technology and equipment, consumer products, healthcare and automobiles will take the CIIE stage, the organizer said. The Hongqiao forum as part of the annual CIIE will focus more on openness-related topics.

The CIIE, in addition to the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing and the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, is a major platform showcasing the country's push for opening-up and global cooperation.

Calling itself an icon of China's reform and opening-up and a "regular guest" at the CIIE, US electric vehicle giant Tesla said in a statement sent to the Global Times that the upcoming expo in Shanghai, as a platform enabling openness, cooperation and win-win outcomes, will introduce a number of Fortune Global 500 firms and industry majors to opportunities in China. Tesla will showcase its humanoid robot - the Tesla Bot - at this year's CIIE.