CANTON Fair, China’s oldest and largest trade fair, concluded its 124th biannual session yesterday with US$29.86 billion in transaction value, perfectly preluding the country’s first-ever import expo slated for today.

International big names, including Caterpillar, are busy making turnarounds from the just concluded Canton Fair in Guangzhou to the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

“Instead of buying (from China), now we are selling (to China),” said Steven Yu, president of Orient Fan Co, a licensed seller of heavy machinery giant Caterpillar.

Yu first came to the Canton Fair at the age of 8 with his father, who was a buyer looking to source products from Chinese suppliers. His company now is looking for a distributor to sell Caterpillar fans and heaters in the Chinese market. Caterpillar occupies a 250-square-meter space in the smart and high-end manufacturing exhibition area at the CIIE, exhibiting a wide range of products from its new solar turbines and gas generators to intelligent service equipment.

More than 3,000 companies from over 130 countries and regions are expected to participate in the CIIE, bringing more than 5,000 new products to China.

European supermarket giant Carrefour plans to purchase dairy products from Switzerland and New Zealand at the CIIE for its Chinese outlets. “The expo convenes good suppliers from the world. It saves us time and energy to place the orders here rather than traveling around the world,” said Dai Wei, vice president of Carrefour China.

China has been the world’s second-largest importer of goods for nine consecutive years, and it took 10.2 percent of global imports last year. Chinese authorities expect the country to import goods worth US$24 trillion in the next 15 years.

As an upgrading consumption sector reshapes China’s economic and trade structure, the CIIE is expected to give new impetus to China’s transition from being the world’s factory to the world’s major consumer power, and make the China market more accessible than ever.

When meeting with Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain’s 48 Group Club, in Beijing last month, President Xi Jinping said China’s great achievement of economic and social development in the past 40 years has strengthened its determination of reform and opening-up.

“Under the current world circumstances, China is even more determined to support trade liberalization and economic globalization,” Xi said.

Barometer of foreign trade

The Canton Fair, held every spring and autumn since 1957 as an export-promotion event, has been seen as a barometer of China’s foreign trade.

Although the transaction value at this session was 1 percent lower than that of last year, it has been achieved amid rising protectionism, which has dampened the global trade, said the Canton Fair’s spokesman Xu Bing.

He said 636 foreign firms from 34 countries and regions attended the fair. The number of new buyers rose 2.34 percent from last year, and particularly, the number of new buyers from countries along the Belt and Road increased by 4.18 percent.

Fast growth, better intellectual property protection and an improving business environment are cited as reasons for continued optimism. It was not until the 101st session in the Spring of 2007 that the fair had its name officially changed to the China Import and Export Fair from the previous name, the Chinese Export Commodities Fair.

Liu Fuxue, deputy director of the CIIE Bureau, had a dozen years of experience of attending the Canton Fair. “The change of the fair’s name was meant to encourage countries with big trade deficits with China to expand their sales in China so as to reduce the deficit,” said Liu.

Through the years, imports are no longer a “side dish” at the trade fair, as foreign companies showed an increasing interest in the Chinese market, he said.

In 2007, the exhibition space for foreign sellers covered 10,400 square meters with 629 booths. The numbers rose to 20,000 square meters and 998 booths at the latest session.

“From setting import exhibition space in trade fairs to opening the world’s first national-level import expo, China has shown its resolve to deepen opening-up and satisfy its people’s demand for a high-quality life,” said Liu.

Huang Jianzhong, the dean of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said the CIIE will thrust China on a new round of highly efficient opening-up.

Zhao Beiwen, deputy head of the World Economy Institute under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said: “The CIIE shows China’s resolve to fulfill its responsibility as a major country and achieve mutual benefits and win-win cooperation with all nations.”