The 2nd China International Import Expo (CIIE) closed on November 10th. According to Sun Chenghai, deputy director of the China International Import Bureau, the 6-day Expo was quite fruitful with the cumulative pledged transactions reaching 71.13 billion US dollars, an increase of 23% compared with the first expo.

Sun said at the news briefing of the closing ceremony on the same day that with the continued theme of “new era, shared future”, the second import expo has attracted more than 3,800 companies from a total of 181 countries, regions and international organizations to participate. More than 500,000 domestic and foreign professional buyers attended the conference to negotiate purchases and as of 12 o’clock on November 10th, the number of visitors had exceeded 910,000.

Compared with the first expo, the scale, quality and layout have seen new breakthroughs. Preliminary statistics show that 391 new products, technologies or services had their global or Chinese debut, exceeding the number at the first expo. In addition, more than 380 supplementary activities were held during the second expo. Sun said that the CIIE is gradually becoming a first choice platform for purchasing and releasing new products and new technology for various industries.

Moreover, the exhibition services of this Expo have been of higher quality. According to Huayuan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Shanghai has opened a total of 125 special windows and dedicated channels for the Expo in the main ports to provide 24-hour service. The efficiency of customs clearance has increased by 62.5% compared with the first session with the fastest clearance only taking 15 seconds.

"The attraction and international influence of the CIIE has been increasing. It plays a bigger role as an important platform for international cooperation in the new era and as a new international public goods. CIIE is injecting new impetus and making new contributions to the construction of an open world economy and promoting the construction of a community of common destiny,” said Sun.