The 121th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair)

The PressConference for the opening of the 121^st session of China Import andExport Fair was held in Canton Fair Complex in the morning of April 14^th.Mr. Xu Bing, spokesperson of the Canton Fair, Deputy Director General of ChinaForeign Trade Centre, has introduced the general situation of this session.

According to XuBing, with intense but orderly preparation, the 121^st Canton Fair isready, which will open on April 15^th.

Xu Bing haspointed out that, in this year, the national commerce system has implemented aseries of trade policies and documents issued by the Party Central Committeeand the State Council. Therefore, the foreign trade sector was able to maintaindevelopment momentum with optimized structure and improved quality,accelerating the accumulation of a new momentum. At the same time, we remain soberminded that the world economic recovery is still weak, the market demand remainsunchanged, and “anti-globalization” starts to prevail. Moreover, the domestic costof the comprehensive production factors has increased, and our traditionaladvantage has been weakened. The foreign trade situation remains complicated andsevere; great effort is needed to consolidate the steady growth of the foreign tradesector.

Xu Bing pointedout that the 121^st Canton Fair is a key one at a new historical startingpoint as it is a continuation of the past 60 years of brilliant history and thebeginning of a bright future. We, under the leadership of the Ministry ofCommerce and in accordance with President Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letterand Premier Li Keqiang’s instruction, will implement the development conceptsof innovation, coordination, green, opening and sharing. We’ll improvespecialization, market orientation, information application and internationaldevelopment of the Fair and build “Smart Canton Fair” and “Green Canton Fair”so as to give full play to its role—a comprehensive platform for opening up andto make contribution to the transformation and upgrading of China’s foreigntrade sector and building a strong trading nation.

Xu Bingintroduced that the whole arrangement of the 121^st Canton Fairremains the same and exhibition size steady. The 121^st session willstill be held in three phases with a total exhibition area of 1.18 millionsquare meters and 60,219 booths. There are 24,718 exhibitors from home andabroad. Phase 1 starts from Apr 15^th to 19^th, showingElectronics and Household Electrical Appliances, Lighting Products, VehiclesSpare Parts, Machinery, Hardware & Tools, Building Materials, ChemicalProducts and Energy Products. Phase 2 starts from Apr 23^rd to 27^th,showing Daily Consumer Goods, Gifts and Home Decoration Products. Phase 3starts from May 1^st to 5^th, showing Textile and Garment,Shoes, Cases and Bags, Recreation Products, Medicine and Healthcare Products.

In this session,there are 59,221 booths and 24098 exhibitors in the National Pavilion. 16categories of products will be exhibited in 50 sections. The booth arrangementis as follows: 11,925 brand booths and 47,296 general booths, taking up 20% and80% respectively. The number of exhibitors in 3 phases is: 8,628 in Phase,7,297 in Phase 2, and 8,173 in Phase 3.

TheInternational Pavilion will be set up in Phase 1 and Phase 3, with an area of20,000 square meters. There are 998 booths and 6 product zones, and 625enterprises from 42 countries and regions, among which 364 enterprises or 616booths are from the Belt and Road countries.

Scientificdivision of themes to improve specialization. We willcontinue to improve specialization in organizing exhibitors, striving to buildup a more specialized platform. To keep optimizing the division of sections,124product zones will be set up in 27 sections and particularly, we’ll improvespecialization of Consumer Electronics, Information Products, Building andDecorative Materials, Hardware and Chemical products, Household Textiles, etc.We will also nurture new themes like New Energy, Pet Supplies, and Outdoor Spa.All the measures will improve the quality of exhibitors. Furthermore, we will drivethe integration of National and International Pavilion, with exhibitors ofElectronics and Household Appliances, Fabric and Home Textile competing on thesame stage.

Enhanced marketing for global promotion. We’vetaken various measures to improve precise marketing and invite quality buyersto attend the Fair. We have led promotional teams to 12 countries andvisited over 60 facilities including government departments for tradepromotion, trade chambers of commerce and exhibition corporations, andheld 8 promotional activities in various forms. Around theglobe, remote video promotional conferences were held in 17 cities of15 countries, which were all new market. We’ve explored second- andthird-tier markets, covering all major continents. We’ve built six internationalsocial media platforms with our characteristics and focused on Facebook andLinkedIn. On key themes and markets, online and offline engagement marketingwas conducted. We’ve made innovation in targeted marketing mode and optimized marketing content andpromotion channel based on target markets and key industries. We have further developedthe I-Share series activities, carried out incentive plan for invitingbuyers, enhanced partnership with overseas industrial and commercialorganization, airline and social media, and provided customized discountsfor key markets. We’ve increased invitation to VIP buyers, especially thosefrom the Belt and Road countries. Direct mails of invitation sent to thesecountries accounted for 48% of the total.

Enriched exhibition function for improved market efficiency. According to the marketdemand, we have consolidated Canton Fair’s high-end information service topromote its transformation to a multi-functional platform. Conferences andforums including over 60 activities will be held. They can be divided into 8themes, including industry summit, global market, design innovation, brandmarketing, trend forecast, technology and research, local industry promotionand enterprise management optimization. Among them, the latter two are newthemes in this session. In order to expand the global influence of CF Awards,we’ve set up “the Most Popular Product Award” for the first time, invitingglobal buyers to participate in the selection. With the purpose of providingglobal high-quality design resource for exhibitors, we’ve enriched the servicesof PDC. In total, we attracted 98 design agencies from 12 countries andregions, 9 clothing design brands, with a total display area of 1694 squaremeters.

Build “Smart Canton Fair”, and enhanceinformation application.Firstly, improved functions. We’ve optimized the functions of Canton Fair’sofficial website, perfected the main entrance of “Smart Canton Fair” by renovatingthe multilingual versions, upgrading the booth navigating service on PCs,revising the column of CF Awards and launching email subscription. Secondly,enriched information. We’ve improved the inquiry system of exhibitors and products,focusing on optimizing the mobile version and highlighting the exhibitors and productssection; we’ve updated 168,679 pieces of product information of 22,014exhibitors to promote Canton Fair beforehand and facilitate buyers to maketheir sourcing plans. Also we’ve created an international social mediaecosphere with Facebook and LinkedIn as its primary platform, and analyzed thecharacteristics of audience to improve the attending rate. Thirdly, moreconsiderate experience. We’ve optimized the BEST platform, and achievedaccurate investigation as well as behavior tracking through intelligent data miningand analysis; upgraded the platform of data integration analysis to enhance userexperience; improved smart carrying service to build a systematic platformintegrating online reservation and payment; enriched the means of food servicepayment, with online payment available at all catering areas and introducedDianping (online comment platform); developed WeChat mini programs, and providedself-complaint of problems on wireless and fixed-line telephones.

Xu pointed outthat: Canton Fair has always been committed to build an equitable and fairtrading environment. We will send “reminder” to enterprises with records of allegedIPR infringement and trade disputes to urge them to strengthen self-examinationand correction. We have also invited IPR law enforcement officers and trade disputemediators to stay in the Fair to handle complaints. Through Canton Fair Wechat account,we’ve enhanced education of intellectual property right protection. And we’ve furtherstandardized the procedure of handling complaints to increase efficiency.

Xu pointed outthat the green booth coverage rate in this session is still 100%, and we willtake a series of measures to promote green move-in normalization. Firstly, wewill entrust a third-party agency to assess the results of the GreenDevelopment Plan of the Canton Fair so as to clear the priorities for the nextphase. Secondly, we will improve the green development system, strengthen the eliminationmechanism for construction enterprises of custom-built booths, and implementreward and punishment measures. Thirdly, through advancing green developmentstandardization, quantifying standards in details, and catalogingmaterials for green custom-built booths, we will improve the quality of greendevelopment by reduction, recycle and reuse. Fourthly, we will promote greenexhibition certification and achieve green brand benchmarking. Fifthly, throughadvocating IT development, green move-in, green move-out, green conferences, greenvenue, and environment safety, we will devote ourselves to the all-round developmentof the green plan.

Xu Bingmentioned that in the 121^st Canton Fair we will launch facialrecognition system. For all personnel and vehicles entering the venue, we will implement“electronic + facial recognition” verification. We’ve also improved the sample securitymanagement, eliminating security threat from the source. We’ve filled in ID informationof truck drivers online and connected to public security system to enhance theaccuracy of identity information. We’ve collaborated with governmentdepartments to build a three-dimensional security prevention and controlsystem. Also, by strengthening emergency management and reporting system, we’veenhanced the ability to respond to emergencies.

Xu Bingintroduced that in order to implement the document of State Council onsupporting steady growth of foreign trade, adjusting the structure, andrelieving the burden of exhibitors, in the 121^st Canton Fair, wewill keep booth fee in accordance with the reduced level in the 119^th session.Meanwhile, on the basis of fee reduction for 23 on-site services, we will providefree carpet laying for standard booths for the first time to enhance the overallimage of the Fair and reduce security risks. The measures above will save 240million RMB Yuan for exhibitors.

Moreover, XuBing has answered questions asked by journalists regarding the implementationof Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter and Li Keqiang’s instructions, the coordinationof “Belt and Road” initiative at Canton Fair and, Smart Canton Fair, CantonFair’s assistance for Chinese brand to go global, IPR protection, trend ofbuyer attendance, etc.