Beijing, September 29, reporter Feng Qiyu reports: The Ministry of Commerce held a special press conference today to announce that the 120th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) will be opened on October 15. The exhibition is still divided into three phases, with a total of 60,250 booths and 24,500 exhibitors at home and abroad.
Zhang Ji, assistant minister of Commerce, pointed out at the press conference that the Canton Fair has been running continuously for 60 years since its inception in the spring of 1957. It is a comprehensive international trade event with the longest history, the largest scale, the most variety of products, the largest number of visitors and the best transaction results. It is worthy of the name of "the first exhibition in China".
Zhang points out that the Canton Fair has played an important role in different historical periods. First, we will give strong support to enterprises in exploring international markets. Canton Fair has become an "incubator" for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises to find foreign customers, expand the international market, and grow from small to large. It has also become a "propeller" for the transformation and upgrading of a large number of powerful foreign trade enterprises, which makes an important contribution to consolidating our export foundation and promoting the steady growth of foreign trade. Second, we will help enterprises cultivate their own brands. At present, there are more than 2,000 high-quality brand exhibitors each session, the number of booths exceeds 20% of the total number of booths, and the transaction exceeds 30%, which promotes the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade and structural adjustment. Third, it drives a large number of domestic export-oriented trade exhibitions. During the Canton Fair, nearly 200,000 buyers from all over the world are gathered, forming the South China Exhibition season with the Canton Fair as the core and the international purchasing season with the spring and autumn as the main seasons. Fourth, enhance economic and trade exchanges for mutual benefit. The Canton Fair attracts nearly 400,000 buyers from more than 210 countries and regions every year, promoting economic and trade integration and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. Since the 101st Canton Fair, the Canton Fair has set up an import exhibition area, which has accumulated more than 10,000 high-quality overseas enterprises from 108 countries and regions.
Li Jinqi, director of China Foreign Trade Center, said the fair continued to optimize the setting of exhibition areas, including 27 exhibition areas set up special areas for exhibits, the number of more than 120. At the same time, we have intensified our efforts to attract international investment. As of September 26, more than 50,000 buyers have been pre-registered and registered through social media, search engines and other Internet channels. The Canton Fair continued to reduce the burden on enterprises, and continued to reduce the cost of enterprises participating in the fair. The cost reduction was the same as that of the last fair, and the total burden reduction for enterprises was 240 million yuan.
The press conference also introduced the country's foreign trade operation in the first eight months of this year. Statistics show that in the first eight months of this year, the country's imports and exports were 15.4 trillion yuan (the same below), down 1.8 percent year-on-year. Of which, the export was 8.8 trillion yuan, down 1%; Imports were 6.5 trillion yuan, down 2.9 percent. According to the analysis of this Steed, although the import and export of foreign trade is still a negative growth, but with the effect of the national policies and measures to promote the stabilization of foreign trade gradually showing, through the painstaking efforts of the vast number of import and export enterprises, the decline of the import and export of foreign trade continues to narrow, the structure is further optimized, the new growth momentum is accumulating, and the development of foreign trade maintains a stable trend.
According to Zhang, the fundamentals of China's foreign trade development have not changed, its industrial complementary advantages with developed and developing countries have not changed, and the trend of accelerating foreign trade restructuring and power transformation has not changed. At the same time, he stressed that the foreign trade situation throughout the year remains complex and grim, with increasing downward pressure and increasing uncertainties and destabilizing factors. Overall, the foreign trade situation is still not optimistic, the new difficulties are not short-term, and we still need to make strenuous efforts to achieve the goal of stabilizing and improving foreign trade for the whole year.
