By Chu Shijia

The China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, has become a key window for China’s opening-up and a great platform for foreign trade. It is also an important channel for enterprises to expand into international markets. Over the past 67 years, Canton Fair has made significant contributions to serving international trade, connecting domestic and international markets, and promoting economic development.

The 133rd Canton Fair, which took place in Guangzhou from April 15 to May 5 in three phases, resumed its offline exhibitions for the first time after the three-year COVID-19 pandemic. But its online operation will run throughout the year.

This is the first year of comprehensively implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The 133rd Canton Fair, as the largest one in its history, is of great significance. All foreign trade business insiders have taken the initiatives to make Canton Fair better.

In response to some new trends in international trade and new demands in the global market, the current Canton Fair has added new themes such as industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, smart living, and the “elderly economy”.

These themes fully showcase China’s industrial upgrading, trade transformation, and technological innovation achievements to the world. It also led to some important adjustment to the layout of the Canton Fair exhibition areas, which helps to promote exchanges in emerging industries worldwide and boost innovative development in trade.

This session of Canton Fair is promoting such transformation through innovative measures. Among the more than 3 million items displayed online, there are around 800,000 new products and over 500,000 green and low-carbon products.

Nearly 300 events involving the launches of new products were held in fields including industrial manufacturing, electronic appliances, construction materials and decoration, and household and entertainment.

The Canton Fair Design Innovation Award (CF Award) for 2023 encourages companies to accelerate research and innovation. High-end, intelligent, customized, branded, and green and low-carbon products are highly favored by global buyers. Innovation has become a new engine to drive companies to expand into the international market.

The current Canton Fair, under the theme of “selling to the world and buying from the world”, brought together nearly 35,000 exhibitors from home and abroad, including over 9,000 new companies.

Among them, there are both single-item champions in the manufacturing industry and “small giants” with typical advantages in the industry. There are not only Chinese high-tech companies but also world-class brands from around the globe.

Buyers from 229 countries and regions around the world participated in the event online and offline, with new faces emerging while traditional Canton Fair exhibitors continuing to appear. The number of overseas partners of this session of Canton Fair increased to 186, covering 102 countries and regions.

The current Canton Fair has enriched its formats, expanded its functions, and optimized its services. Its organizers will spare no effort to build Canton Fair into a significant platform for China’s all-around opening-up to the outside world, promoting high-quality development of international trade, and connecting the domestic and international markets.

The author is the deputy chief and secretary general of China Import and Export Fair and head of China Foreign Trade Centre