The 133rd China Import and Export Fair, or the 133rd Canton Fair, will resume offline exhibition on April 15 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, said Chu Shijia, director of China Foreign Trade Center, on Saturday.

The fair will be held in three phases, with its exhibition area expanded from 1.18 million to 1.5 million square meters, focusing on home appliances and machinery, consumer goods, textiles and clothing, health.

Currently, more than 40,000 enterprises have applied for exhibition booths, with the booth number increasing to nearly 70,000 from previous 60,000. Online exhibition is also opening arms to all qualified enterprises.

Among the exhibitors, there are over 5,000 high-quality and characteristic enterprises, including 2,632 state-level high-tech enterprises, 2,074 brand enterprises of Canton Fair, 1,292 AEO authorized enterprises, and about 500 champion enterprises in the manufacturing industry and "little giant" enterprises which specialize in niche sectors, command high market shares and boast strong innovative capacity.

The fair has started global promotion in advance and sent invitations to 950,000 domestic and foreign buyers, 177 global partners and 224 business institutions of foreign embassies and consulates in China, said Chu.