Event goes from strength to strength over the years

A total of 681 businesses from 43 countries and regions have confirmed that they would take part in the China Import Expo, Kunshan 2015, which is expected to attract 60,000 visitors.

The exposition, which begins on Wednesday in Kunshan, a city in East China's Jiangsu province, is one of the first international fairs in China that focuses on boosting imports to the country, according to organizers including the Kunshan government.

The event has attracted nearly 2,000 companies from across the world since it began in March 2012.

"We, with determination and confidence, will keep hosting the trade fair and make it a national-level import service platform, which functions well and is widely influential," said Da Jiaxiang, deputy chief of the Jiangsu commerce department, at a press conference on May 6.

The past three expositions in Kunshan helped foreign companies sell their advanced products and technologies to Chinese buyers and promoted international communication as well as cooperation, said the organizers.

To better serve exhibitors, organizers of the China Import Expo, Kunshan 2014 used two halls to separate industrial exhibits and consumer goods.

Items related to metal processing and automation, environmental protection and new materials, as well as civil aviation will be shown in the Kunshan Huaqiao International Expo Center. Electronic consumer goods, household articles, food and wine are on display in the Kunshan International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Some 680 exhibitors and 50,000 visitors attended the event in 2014 and the total exhibition area was 80,000 square meters, 33 percent larger than the previous year.

The China Import Expo, Kunshan 2013, then called the China International Import Expo, attracted 602 companies from 41 countries and regions including the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Japan and South Korea.

About 40 percent of the enterprises attended the trade fair for the second time.

The event in 2013 centered on advanced equipment and technology and products in other emerging industries, which the central and Jiangsu governments targeted for imports as part of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15).

Exhibits at the fair fell into categories of machinery, environmental protection, new materials and energy, electronic information, vehicles and consumer goods.

A dozen foreign officials from commercial chambers and associations, including the International Chamber of Commerce, and governments headed up 23 groups to join the first Kunshan Import Expo in 2012.

Executives from big companies across the world including AGCO Co, a US agricultural equipment manufacturer, were also present at the fair.

The 2012 expo covered an exhibition area of 50,000 sq m and the organizers said they planned to increase the area to 200,000 sq m by 2017.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/20/2015 page24)