Nation prepares for 140th Canton Fair

With China pressing ahead with industrial upgrading and high-standard opening-up, the country's largest trade expo is expected to help global businesses benefit from innovation-driven growth and tap into the vast Chinese market, lending much-needed impetus to a sluggish world economy, officials and experts said.

The 140th China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, will open on Oct 15 in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, and run through Nov 4.

The fair has mirrored China's emergence as a global trading powerhouse and the growing sophistication of its exports. Its latest edition will reaffirm the country's commitment to opening its market wider to the world, they added.

The event comes as China's foreign trade maintains solid momentum, with total goods trade rising 17.6 percent year-on-year to 34.8 trillion yuan ($5.19 trillion) in the first eight months, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Imports grew 22 percent, outpacing the 14.6 percent increase in exports.

"China's imports and exports have shifted toward more technologically advanced products in recent years, as the country's manufacturers continued to move up the value chain," said Zhang Li, assistant minister of commerce, at a news conference on Friday.

That shift is turning high-tech, high-value-added products into "the main engines of foreign trade growth", said Yang Tao, director-general of the ministry's department of foreign trade.

Imports and exports of mechanical and electrical products rose 24.9 percent year-on-year to 19.1 trillion yuan in the first eight months, Yang said. Trade in integrated circuits surged 68.1 percent, while trade in computers and parts grew 60.5 percent.

This year's fair will bring together 32,000 exhibitors, including more than 11,000 leading enterprises such as specialized, innovative firms and manufacturing champions in niche markets, according to Zhang.

Artificial intelligence is also playing a growing role across the trade process, Zhang said, with this year's fair integrating AI and big data throughout its operations to improve the experience for participants.

The fair's international reach, meanwhile, continues to expand as China opens its economy further.

"More than 210,000 buyers from 196 countries and regions have already preregistered, with professional buyers accounting for nearly 80 percent," said Zhu Yong, head of the China Foreign Trade Centre.

China, the world's largest goods trading nation, remains an important driver of global trade growth as trade barriers mount and inflationary pressures persist.

China contributed 2.1 percentage points to global trade growth in the first quarter, accounting for 20.3 percent of the increase, said Zhang, the assistant minister, citing calculations based on World Trade Organization data released in July.

"Foreign trade is vital to China's own economic development and has become a powerful engine of global trade and economic growth," he added.

Wang Xuekun, head of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, called for greater efforts to tap new sources of trade growth, pointing to opportunities arising from the development and adoption of AI.