This year marks the commencement of China`s 15th Five-Year Plan alongside the 70th anniversary of the China Import and Export Fair, widely known as the Canton Fair. Over the past seven decades, the fair`s exhibition area has expanded from 9,600 square meters to 1.55 million square meters, while buyer attendance has grown from 1,200 to over 300,000. It stands as the longest-running, largest-scale, and most successful international comprehensive trade fair held in China. In his congratulatory message to this edition of the Canton Fair, Chinese President Xi Jinping noted that over 70 years, the fair has played a vital role in advancing trade between China and nations worldwide, evolving into an effective platform for China to expand high-standard opening-up and build an open world economy.

The overarching theme for the first phase of this edition centers on "Advanced Manufacturing," spotlighting the latest breakthroughs across five core sectors: electronics and home appliances, industrial manufacturing, lighting and electrical equipment, hardware tools, and vehicles and two-wheelers. The dedicated service robot zone features frontier innovations in embodied intelligence, specialized operations, and public services.

Today, the Canton Fair has emerged as a major barometer for the world to observe China, unlocking pragmatic commercial prospects for global enterprises. Over its 70-year history, cumulative export transactions concluded at the Canton Fair have reached 1.6 trillion US dollars. China remains the world’s largest trader in goods and the second-largest consumer market. In the first three quarters of this year, China’s total import and export volume of goods reached 39.94 trillion yuan, up 18.8 percent year-on-year. Recently, the Indian portal Economic Upward reported that the Canton Fair offers Indian enterprises an invaluable venue to evaluate sourcing options, tap export channels, and grasp the broader trajectory of Chinese manufacturing.

Source: Cai, Alim, Wang Haiman | China Media Group (CMG)