At the opening press conference of the 126th Canton Fair on October 14th, Xu Bing, Canton Fair spokesperson and Deputy Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre, introduced the general characteristics of this session.

Xu Bing said that innovation is the essence of the long-term prosperity of the Canton Fair. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce, we stay focused on promoting the high-quality development of foreign trade and facilitating the construction of a strong trade power as the central mission, take various measures to improve the organization level comprehensively and play a more positive role in expanding exports, increasing imports and meeting the needs of “selling to and buying from the world” of enterprises from home and abroad. Through improvements on five aspects, including quality, comprehensiveness, specialization, internationalization and digitalization, we aim to let companies from home and abroad share the new opportunities provided by the Canton Fair.

A higher-quality Canton Fair to advance foreign trade development. The exhibiting companies are verified based on the Canton Fair exhibiting standards and the brand stands are adjusted dynamically at the Fair. Attracting outstanding enterprises from all industries, Canton Fair reflects the development level of “Made in China”. The protection of IPR is highly emphasized at the Fair. By protecting the IPR before, during and after the Fair, we aim to strengthen the awareness of IPR protection to create a fair and safe trade environment for companies from home and abroad.

A more comprehensive Canton Fair to generate more choices for buyers. With the total exhibition area of 1,185,000 square meters, Canton Fair has become the world’s largest trade exhibition. There are 51 sections set up based on 16 categories of products and over 160,000 varieties of products exhibited at this session. With the exhibitor update rate exceeding 5% and over 30% product update rate, the number of products with independent intellectual property rights, self-owned brand, independent marketing, high technological content, high added value and high benefit has been increasing. When sourcing at the Canton Fair, buyers can have numerous choices of enterprises and products and achieve one-stop sourcing of various products of “Made in China”.

A more specialized Canton Fair to improve sourcing efficiency. At this session, we keep improving specialization and optimizing the structures of sections and exhibiting enterprises. According to the industrial and sourcing habits, we set up 156 specific product zones based on 51 specialized sections. With the products of the same category demonstrated intensively, it is very easy for buyers to find the target customers and products.

A more internationalized Canton Fair to promote mutual benefits and win-win results. It is predicted that buyers from over 210 countries and regions will attend and source at this session. Global consumers can share the benefit of “Made in China” products with high quality and favorable price. The International Pavilion will be participated by many world famous leading enterprises and world industrial clusters, including 642 quality enterprises from 38 countries and regions, providing an international public platform for overseas enterprises to sell to and buy from the world. Moreover, it is also a platform for overseas companies to introduce their products to the Chinese markets and to explore the global markets.

A more digitalized Canton Fair to improve the level of smart services. Currently, the world has embraced the age of digitalization. In order to follow the trend, we positively facilitate digital transformation at Canton Fair. The six new business models have gradually come into being, including i-preshow, i-matching, i-travel, i-verification, i-promotion, i-service. At this session, we will improve Wi-Fi service, conduct pilot operation of newly-integrated online comprehensive business system for exhibitors, provide intelligent robot customer service in Chinese and English, and realize online filling and producing statistics of transactions, thus providing more efficient and convenient service for domestic and overseas customers.