The 132nd China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) is scheduled to open on Oct 15 in Guangzhou and will be held online. On Sept 27, Wang Shouwen, vice-commerce minister and China international trade representative at the Ministry of Commerce, held a press conference to answer questions from media outlets regarding the fair.

While the Canton Fair is one of China's biggest platforms for imports and exports, covering a wide variety and flexible patterns of trade, Wang noted that holding the fair online has expanded its reach.

"Although the Canton Fair is the largest offline exhibition in the world, it has space limitations with only 25,000 enterprises able to participate in offline exhibitions," he said. "There are no space limitations for online exhibitions. To date, nearly 10,000 additional enterprises have signed up to participate in the upcoming online Canton Fair, including small giant enterprises, high-tech enterprises, and single champion enterprises in the manufacturing industry."

Wang added that the online Canton Fair will provide functions like online exhibition, trade matchmaking, and conference services to participating exhibitors for five months and that online editions of the fair have allowed it to cater to more professional purchasers.

"When the exhibition was held offline, the number of professional purchasers was about 200,000. That number for the last online Canton Fair exceeds 500,000," he said about the fair, which has traditionally attracted participating enterprises and purchasers from around the world.

In addition, the export exhibition of this edition of the Canton Fair has 16 categories of commodities and 50 exhibition areas, while the import exhibition has six major themes and 50 exhibition areas. This online Canton Fair will continue to carry out synchronous activities with 132 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones and five cross-border e-commerce platforms. At the same time as the online exhibition is held, Guangzhou has invited freight forwarders, financial institutions, and credit insurance institutions to provide online services.

The China Import and Export Fair Complex in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province. [Photo/WeChat account: gzhzfb]