Fair will 'make trade more sustainable'

As new tech, products debut, import expo wows global business leaders

State-of-the-art technologies and solutions will be displayed during the fourth China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

This prompted leaders of multinational companies to hail China as a touchstone for digitalization breakthroughs and an open platform for global technological advances.

For instance, Joe Bao, president of Microsoft China, said, "Microsoft Corp is really looking forward to showcase our new and innovative technology solutions and applications at the CIIE, which also paved the way for what we have planned for the market for the future."

The US tech conglomerate has been participating in the mega event for four consecutive years. It showcases its leading digital solutions in intelligent manufacturing, retail and healthcare this time.

"Investing in innovations is what Microsoft has been committed to in the Chinese market, so as to promote joint digital advances with our partners and helping bring China's homegrown innovations to the world," Bao said.

The Tuttlingen, Germany-based Karl Storz Co, a prominent medical instrument and device manufacturer and supplier, also brought its best-known tech products and solutions to the expo.

According to Mei Yang Mille, the managing director of Karl Storz Endoscopy (Shanghai) Ltd, the company's OR1 innovative integrated solutions for operating rooms offers expandable systems that can be localized and customized to the needs of Chinese customers.

"The expo promotes international procurement and multilateral cooperation, with concrete policy support and framework setup. With the expo, we will demonstrate our high-quality innovative products and operation room solutions, and commitment to a worldwide audience," she said.

China has become a leader in the digital economy, attracting companies from both home and abroad to invest and develop. The market size of the country's digital economy surged 9.6 percent year-on-year last year, the fastest worldwide, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a Beijing-based government think tank.

For Kentaro Fujiwara, CEO of Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido China, thanks to the rapid growth of the Chinese market, China quickly became Shiseido's largest overseas market. Now, the company actually exports some of its best technologies and solutions from China to other economies.

"New technologies and products will continue to emerge from or be introduced to the Chinese market, as each emerging technology or product has an extremely large target consumer base here in China. Consumers here are willing to try something new," Fujiwara said.

He also said Shiseido's second skin and 3D internal skin elasticity imaging technologies will make their international debut at the CIIE. The company's new beauty brand will also be unveiled at the grand event.

Nearly 3,000 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions showcase their latest technologies or innovative solutions at the expo. More than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and industry-leading enterprises are participating for at least the second time.

"The mega expo has become a creative example showing how China explores more efficient ways to connect domestic and foreign markets and shares factors of leading production and resources with the world," said Aaron Tang, president of Karcher China, unit of a German cleaning equipment manufacturer.

"Under the circumstance of world economic recovery, the significance of the CIIE goes far beyond buying a certain amount of foreign goods and services. It will also inject more vitality into the world economy and make international trade more balanced and sustainable," Tang said.

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said, "The holding of the CIIE demonstrates that China honors its commitment to high-level opening-up and sharing development dividends with others to shore up globalization."

"The world is in urgent need of more trade orders and increased demand to revive the staggering economic recovery, as well as communications, to reach consensus and find more effective ways to combat the COVID-19 and repair global industrial and supply chains, and regarding both, the CIIE will play a vital and positive role," he said.