CIIE Begins Event Prep as Exhibitors Fill Up Booths
Miao Qi
DATE:  Jun 08 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
CIIE Begins Event Prep as Exhibitors Fill Up Booths CIIE Begins Event Prep as Exhibitors Fill Up Booths

(Yicai Global) June 8 -- The inaugural China International Import Expo is turning its eye to event preparation after filling the majority of its booths.

Companies from more than 120 countries and regions have signed up for the expo, including 160 of the world's top 500, the CIIE Bureau claimed in a statement on June 6. The event has filled up faster than expected and there are now limited spaces available to exhibitors, it added.

The organization will also invite a host of purchasers from China and overseas, including trade delegations and state-owned enterprises. All of China's 98 centrally-owned companies will take part in the expo, it added, saying the CIIE has opened up online registration for trade delegations. It anticipates 150,000 buyers to attend.

The event aims to help China open its door wider to foreign companies and allowing China's firms and consumers to benefit from high-quality products and services brought in from overseas, such as high-field magnetic resonance radiation therapy systems, new civilian helicopters, industrial robots, smart wearables and organic dairy products.

Keywords used to select companies for the event include "world class," "high quality" and "unique," Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the expo bureau, said earlier this year. Many of the exhibitors are expected to demonstrate brand new and recently-developed products at the expo, such as Microsoft's HoloLens and radiotherapy equipment made by Swedish medical firm Elekta. Italy's Leonardo is also set to show off some of its newest aircraft.

Signify, previously known as Philips lighting, plans to use the expo to unveil a smart control platform which has government, commercial and home applications, Senior Vice President Wang Yun told Yicai Global.

Lowering Costs

Organizers behind the six-day event plan to set up a platform to make it easier for domestic consumers to get hold of products on show at the expo year-round.

The platform will not provide direct retail services, but will allow suppliers and importers to establish sales channels and make transactions more efficient, bringing down the cost of foreign goods to consumers, according to Yang Jianrong, chairman of the Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai.

The Yangtze River Delta region is a well-developed Chinese region and has a higher per-capita income than other areas, said Zhou Weilin, director of the Fudan Institute for Urban Economic Research. The CIIE will facilitate the dissemination of high-end product information and reduce transaction costs to narrow down the income gap with other regions, he added.

City Prep

Shanghai has identified a list of 86 urban service support tasks that need to be conducted, and has invited experts who took part in the 2010 Shanghai World Expo to help devise plans and run drills and rehearsals, said Shang Yuying, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

A number of tasks are already underway and are set to be completed by September, she added.

The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration is also working to ensure there is adequate space in local hotels, with more than 5,000 rooms already booked, according to Cheng Meihong, deputy director of the agency.

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Keywords:   China International Import Expo