CIIE constantly benefits foreign companies with expanding spillover effects

By Tian Hong, People's Daily

Since the conclusion of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) a year ago, a large batch of exhibits displayed at the event have been put onto shelves, and a series of relevant policies have been and are being implemented, satisfying the upgrading consumption demands of the Chinese people and facilitating the entry of foreign enterprises into the Chinese market.

Obviously, the mega trade fair is showing increasing spillover effects.

Elekta, a Swedish company that provides cancer care devices and solutions is one of the beneficiaries of such spillover effects. Only three months after it debuted its latest self-adaptive accurate stereotactic radiosurgery treatment system at the first CIIE, the system has been officially equipped at the Shanghai Gamma Knife Hospital. So far, the system has served over 2,000 Chinese patients.

The company received dozens of orders at the first CIIE and many of its products have been put into use at hospitals, said Liu Jianbin, vice president and marketing director of Elekta’s Chinese branch.

Elekta (China) Investment Co. Ltd. was established at the end of 2018. Now, the number of its employees in China has exceeded that at its headquarter in Sweden. Its R&D personnel in China account for about half of the company's total in the world.

Such performance can be attributed to the 30 permanent trading platforms established by Shanghai a year ago – the first batch of this kind aiming to turn exhibits into commodities.

Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center is one of the permanent trading platforms where bonded exhibition, transaction, logistics and storage services are all available. As a major platform that demonstrates and expands the spillover effects of the CIIE, it is positioned as a distribution center of imported goods that connects the Yangtze River Delta, serves the whole nation, and even radiates the Asia-Pacific region.

Starting operation since May this year, the center has attracted more than 400 brands and 2,500 commodities from 26 countries, exploring the new models of bonded exhibition and post-exhibition trading.

On Sept. 25, a Type B bonded logistics center at the Shanghai Hongqiao Central Business District started operation, which can carry out bonded exhibition, transactions and cross-border e-commerce business.

Since imported commodities are directly shipped from merchants to the bonded platform, the operating costs of logistics and other procedures are reduced, said Cai Jun, general manager of the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center, adding that many of the imported products are now sold at the same price in China and overseas.

Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub, another permanent exhibition and trade platform, is located next to the venue of the first CIIE. So far, it has received more than 350,000 visitors and held over 50 trade and business activities.

It has welcomed more than 700 professional buyers groups from home and abroad and helped 150 merchants match downstream channels.

New Zealand dairy brand Theland was wowed by the visitors at the first import expo last year for delivering fresh milk from New Zealand dairy farms to Chinese customers in just 72 hours. Now, the products of the company are sold in 26 provincial-level administrative regions in China through offline channels, and are available in all provincial-level administrative regions online.

It is a result of not only the opportunities provided by the CIIE, but also the trade facilitation policies rolled out by the Chinese government.

During the first Expo, China’s General Administration of Customs and other regulatory departments optimized the system and procedures for overseas companies to enter the Chinese market. Gradually, the piloted new system and procedures turned into regular operation, covering more and more foreign companies.

Such trade facilitation policies are particularly effective in the medical industry. Alecensa, a cancer medicine developed by healthcare company Roche and exhibited at the first CIIE, was approved by relevant Chinese departments just 9 months after its approval in the US, and was prescribed to Chinese patients within 47 days of its approval.

It used to take five or six years longer for imported new medicines to be approved in China than in Europe and the US, said Lily Long, vice president and head of communications at Roche Pharmaceuticals China. She believes that the fast approval of Alecensa came from the innovative policies made by the Chinese government.

As the second CIIE is approaching, Li Qiang, Party Secretary of Shanghai, said it is necessary to set higher standard, present finer exhibition, create better atmosphere and stimulate more innovation, so as to upgrade the exhibition through its service, reputation and achievement, and expand the spillover effects of it.

Chinese national flags wave in front of the newly-decorated venue of the second CIIE, Oct. 6, 2019. (Photo/Yan Daming, People’s Daily Online)