(Yicai Global) May 15 -- Another more than 50 companies have signed up for the third China International Import Expo after organizers held their biggest sign-up event to date, with US luxury brand Coach’s parent Tapestry agreeing to participate in the next three expos.

The firms, from the US, Japan, Germany, France and Italy, signed up for nearly 30,000 square meters of exhibition area. Among them are General Electric, Pfizer, Estee Lauder and Uniqlo’s parent Fast Retailing, which subscribed to 1,500 square meters for its CIIE debut.

The third CIIE will take place at Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Center from Nov. 5 through Nov. 10 and already has over 1,400 companies signed up, occupying more than 80 percent of the proposed exhibition area, Deputy Commerce Minister Wang Bingnan, also director of the CIIE Bureau, said in an online speech today.

Covid-19 will not change the long-term positives in the Chinese economy, which is recovering well, Jide Zeitlin, chief executive of Tapestry, said in a video call to the signing ceremony. Tapestry hopes to take advantage of the expo to lay the foundations for a long future in China, Zeitlin added.

US healthcare firm Abbott Laboratories also agreed to join the event for the first time. It will showcase products used to fight Covid-19, nutrition products and diabetes management techniques at the CIIE’s exhibition dedicated to public health and epidemic control, said Chen Jianzhong, its vice president of diagnosis business in China.

Editor: Dou Shicong