Overseas participants dominate at expo

By Yuan Shenggao | China Daily | Updated: 2018-10-23 07:55

More than 1,700 companies from China and 57 other countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, will exhibit their latest products, technologies and equipment at a major expo in Dongguan, Guangdong province, this week.

The international participants will account for 70 percent of all the exhibitors at the Guangdong 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo, which will run from Thursday to Sunday.

Ao Yan, secretary-general of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade's Guangdong committee, the expo host, said, "We placed the emphasis on the quality and effect of the expo rather than pursuing a bigger scale in the short term."

The organizing committee received nearly 2,800 applications for exhibition stands this year, but finally approved 1,732 after refusing a few "unqualified companies" and reducing a single company's required amount of stands to ensure quality and variety, she noted.

The 511 Chinese exhibitors, including many industrial leaders such as home appliance giant Gree; CRRC, one of the world's leading suppliers of rail transit equipment, telecoms operator China Unicom and China Railway Construction Corp.

The expo in Dongguan, an important platform for Guangdong to contribute to the BRI, has been held for four consecutive years since 2014. This year it will cover an area of 70,000 square meters.

It will be composed of a comprehensive exhibition area for countries and regions along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and professional shows of electronics, information and high-end smart equipment, daily necessities, tourism and culture as well as food and tea culture.

The number of professional buyers is expected to increase by at least 9 percent from last year's 31,000 to 34,000 this year, according to the organizer.

Meanwhile, Sun Yat-sen University plans to publicize its first blue paper on the participation of Guangdong in the construction of the BRI during the expo.

The previous session in 2017 saw agreements inked for 758 cooperative projects, involving contractual capital of 219 billion yuan ($31.57 billion), up 5.9 percent year-on-year, according to the organizing committee.