Promotional events held to lure companies to fair

China International Import Expo recently held a range of online promotional events to attract foreign companies to sign up for the business exhibition of the expo in early November, leading to a positive response.

The CIIE Bureau and Confederation of Danish Industry hosted an online meeting to encourage Danish companies to learn about and participate in this year's CIIE on Wednesday. More than 30 Danish companies joined the online meeting. Liu Fuxue, deputy director-general of CIIE Bureau, said at the event that more than 60 percent of planned business exhibition areas have been booked; Lego and Novo Nordisk, the country's leading players in consumer goods and healthcare products, have signed up for the expo.

The first promotional event set to attract global participants to the 2021 CIIE, held on Jan 21 through webinar, attracted more than 100 German companies, trade agencies and industry associations. During the event, previous participants gave testimonials and the CIIE Bureau and the German Chambers of Commerce Abroad, also known as AHK, signed a cooperation agreement.

"We warmly welcome German companies to continue participating in this year's CIIE, sharing the opportunities of China's economic development and injecting vitality into Sino-German economic cooperation," Liu said.

Jan Jovy, general manager of AHK Shanghai, said: "The last three editions of the expo have shown it to be an excellent platform for German companies to introduce their products and services to the Chinese market, strengthening their networks and establishing contacts."

To date, globally renowned German companies such as wholesaler Metro and pharmaceutical enterprise Bayer have signed up to attend the fourth CIIE.

More than 100 South Korean companies attended another promotional event on Feb 2. Sun Chenghai, deputy director-general of the CIIE Bureau, said that South Korea is one of the most important countries for the CIIE as many of the nation's companies have participated in the expo over the past three years.

Xing Haiming, Chinese ambassador to the Republic of Korea, said that the CIIE is a good platform for the development of bilateral trade. He added that the embassy will provide assistance to companies looking to participate in the CIIE.

Currently, dozens of South Korean companies have signed up to participate in this year's CIIE.

Hyundai Motor will lead its three automobile brands and an auto parts company to attend the event. It is expected to be one of the groups with the largest exhibition area this year.

A video conference was attended by key Italian trade groups, such as the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce, Fondazione Italia China and the Italian Association of Foreign Trade, on Feb 8. The Consulate of Costa Rica in Shanghai and the country's Trade Promotion Office attended a separate discussion on Feb 9.

Both Italy and Costa Rica have been active participants in the previous expos. The Italian Chamber of Commerce had even organized merchants to participate in the third edition despite the pandemic, while Costa Rica's trade promotion office has pledged to attend this year's event.

More than 60 companies attended a webinar for attracting Hong Kong companies for the first time on Feb 26.

Sun said at the event that booths by 242 Hong Kong companies occupied 36,000 square meters at the expo venue last year. Nearly 600 Hong Kong companies have participated in the past three editions of the CIIE.

The Hong Kong Trade Development Council will organize two groups－one for food companies and the other for service companies－for this year's expo.

The business exhibition at this year's CIIE will be held with a planned area of about 360,000 sq m. It will have six exhibition areas: Food and Agricultural Products, Automobile, Intelligent Industry and Information Technology, Consumer Goods, Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products, as well as Trade in Services.