Photo taken on Nov. 2, 2020 shows the exterior view of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the main venue of the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE), in east China's Shanghai.(Xinhua/Ding Ting)
GROWING APPEAL
At a time when the pandemic adds more uncertainties and challenges to global economy, convening the import expo offline as scheduled sheds light on China's major strategic achievements in containing COVID-19 as well as its economic resilience.
China is the first major economy to return to growth from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 epidemic with its economy expanding 0.7 percent year on year in the first nine months.
In the same period, the country's foreign trade of goods totaled 23.12 trillion yuan (about 3.46 trillion U.S. dollars), up 0.7 percent year on year, and paid-in foreign investment rose 5.2 percent from a year earlier.
This year, multinational companies gravitate toward the week-long expo as a vote of confidence in Chinese economy, with a lot of them becoming regulars of the annual event.
Up to 70 percent of the world's top 500 companies that participated in the first two expos will be seen this year, and the average exhibition area for the world's top 500 companies and industry leaders has increased by 14 percent year on year.
With the number of visitors expected to reach 400,000 -- the figure could be higher without restriction measures for virus containment -- this year's expo is believed to be one of the largest events across the world in 2020.
"China will be probably one of the only countries in the world where the market will be still growing," said Jean-Paul Agon, CEO of L'Oreal, who added that the conglomerate's sales on the Chinese mainland grew by 30 percent in the second quarter.
Agon said L'Oreal is improving its performance in e-commerce in the rest of the world thanks to what it has learned in China.
With a total population of 1.4 billion and a middle-income group that exceeds 400 million, China has a tremendously huge market that is most promising in the world. The country's goods import is estimated to top 22 trillion dollars in the coming decade.
