The green decoration of the South Square of the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai) captured on November 2nd. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Ying
Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, November 10, Report Title: “Small and beautiful”, fruitful results: enter the Expo to enlarge the dividend of jointly building the “the Belt and Road”
Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Xiaoqing, Huang Zechen, Tang Siqi
Egyptian spices, Ethiopian coffee beans, Armenian brandy, Afghan carpets, Chilean cherries, Syrian rose essential oil, Tanzanian honey… a variety of specialties from countries jointly building the “the Belt and Road” attracted attention at the 7th China International Import Expo.
The Expo is one of the international public goods that China provides to the world and is shared globally, and is constantly expanding the dividend of jointly building the “the Belt and Road”. Since 2018, the Expo has been held for seven consecutive sessions in the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai). This super venue looks like a “four leaf clover”, which has witnessed the co construction of “small and beautiful” trade and development projects in the “the Belt and Road” countries from scratch, from existing to excellent, benefiting all countries.
On November 7th, Alania, who participated in the CIIE for the first time, introduced the jewelry on her booth. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Xiaoqing
Hot commodity trade, strong resilience
These days, Alania and her husband, who are participating in the CIIE for the first time, are very busy. They have a Sphere jewelry processing factory and store in Bangkok, Thailand. Previously, they only participated in jewelry professional exhibitions in southern China. Now, for the first time, they are coming to Shanghai to participate in a large-scale comprehensive expo. Alania said, “Every day, you can meet new customers and receive new surprises. Shanghai is a treasure trove for expanding your business
Thanks to the joint construction of the “the Belt and Road” initiative and the deepening implementation of the China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, Alania’s jewelry enterprises have a new plan to enter China’s vast market. This time, she and her family brought over hundreds of styles of jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets, rings, pendants, etc. inlaid with rubies, emeralds, tourmalines, etc., which attracted buyers to stop by.
Despite the ongoing downward pressure on the global economy, the jade and gemstone section of the CIIE is still bustling with activity. There are first-time visitors like Alania every year, and a considerable number of them later become repeat visitors to consecutive exhibitions.
Many of the countries jointly building the “the Belt and Road” are the original origin of gems and jades, and some are countries with leading processing technology. Chen Yu, CEO of China (Shanghai) Gem&Jade Trading Center, said: “Since the Expo was held seven years ago, a set of exhibition organization mechanism has been formed, and thanks to the support of relevant industry associations of the countries that jointly built the” the Belt and Road “, the Gem&Jade Zone has a relatively prosperous trade, some characteristic SMEs among the old exhibitors have grown in their new business in China, the entire industry has been resilient, and has also promoted some new Sino foreign cooperation projects to go global.”
On November 8th, the purchaser stopped in front of the coffee booth in Timor Leste and an exhibitor representative made and introduced “Cat Classic” coffee from Timor Leste. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Xiaoqing
Digital empowerment “two-way rush”
‘Bringing in’ and ‘going out’ complement each other. At the 7th CIIE, there was a two-way competition between Vietnam and China, where durian products were bought and winter jujubes were sold.
Ru ǎ n ǎ n ǎ n ǎ n, who followed the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Promotion Bureau delegation to the CIIE for the second year, gained new cooperation intentions. Last year, the food company she operated brought a pure durian ice cream to Jinbo for the first time, and the product quickly became a “internet celebrity” through social media live streaming. Within a year, this durian ice cream has found agents in Guangdong, and it is expected to add new agents this year.
The exhibitor Dalong.com in the service trade exhibition area of the 7th China International Expo was only one of the purchasers from Chongqing, China, at the 3rd China International Expo. From the 4th to the 7th, its overseas headquarters participated in the Expo, which not only gradually expanded its booth, but also showed more and more rich and diverse e-commerce solutions for the “the Belt and Road”. Just this year, Dalong.com facilitated the export of 60 tons of winter jujube from Binzhou, Shandong, China to Vietnam.
Taking the winter jujube order exported to Vietnam as an example, the purchaser generally needs to conduct on-site inspection before confirming the contract. The cross-border solution provided by Dalong.com can provide VR technology-based remote inspection services during the negotiation process, which can assist in bilateral or multilateral business negotiations.
Feng Jianfeng, Chairman of Dalongwang Group, said that the “online presence” model helps to track cross-border remote orders in real-time and can help more farmers firmly grasp orders.
This is the service trade exhibition area of the 7th China International Import Expo taken on November 7th. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Liang
Teach people how to fish
Through high-tech support, it is one of the new solutions for trade in services to jointly build agricultural trade among countries along the “the Belt and Road”. The further one is to “teach people to fish” on the basis of traditional trade.
The “Science and Technology Golden Ear” project of Dalong.com focuses on the digital empowerment of rural revitalization. This kind of intelligent planting “container” project for edible fungi has been connected with merchants and planting practitioners in the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Syria, Algeria, India, Türkiye and other countries.
For seven consecutive years, Jinbo’s “old friend” East Timor Coffee, which has appeared in the “Four Leaf Clover” market, has transformed from a source of goods trade to a “cutting-edge” free trade product, and has become a “bridge” connecting the agricultural technology industry chain and supply chain between East Timor and China.
As the 7th China International Import Expo approaches its closing, the East Timor coffee booth is still bustling with people. Su Lei, one of the founders of “Cat Classic” coffee and the general manager of CST Company’s China market in Timor Leste, was surrounded by a continuous stream of tasters. While making hand brewed coffee, he introduced that “East Timor is an island country in Southeast Asia, participated in the construction of the the Belt and Road, and coffee beans are a famous specialty”.
At the first few CIIEs, Su Lei and his partner Bei Lei went from ordinary exhibitors to major traders. They spare no effort to promote East Timor coffee and promote the establishment of the “East Timor National Pavilion” in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Later on, we realized that in addition to increasing capacity and expanding production, we also had to work hard in the industrial and supply chains. It wasn’t until the 7th CIIE this year that we finally established a specialized roasting base for East Timor Coffee in Kunshan, China, and created a new brand – Maodian Coffee, “Su Lei said.
In Belle’s view, the “autonomy” of the entire supply chain is crucial. “On the one hand, we continue to ‘teach people how to fish’ in East Timor, creating more opportunities for farmers to change their own destiny, selling coffee and other agricultural products to the world at a better price. At the same time, we also enable the joint construction of the ‘the Belt and Road’. East Timor coffee itself is the epitome of the success of the Expo in the past seven years – China and the world share a better future of higher quality.”