FOR the 13th time attending the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), the sixth time joining in the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the first time participating in the China International Supply Chain Expo last year, William Yu, president of Honeywell China, could be described as an avid business traveler having attended China’s various exhibitions while reaping fruitful results. The motivation behind “chasing” a lot of these expos is to find new partners and business opportunities. More importantly, it showed the company’s confidence in prospects for China’s economic development, Yu said. “When we moved our Asia-Pacific headquarters to Shanghai two decades ago, we already regarded the Chinese market as our important engine of business growth and innovation,” Yu said, adding that numerous cooperation deals they signed at the expos in 2023 are steadily advancing. The company has already booked their booths at this year’s Canton Fair and the CIIE. Like Honeywell, a growing number of foreign companies see seizing the dynamic opportunities in China as the right choice. As an important window to observe the Chinese economy, China’s expos have stimulated the economic upsurge. 3,248 exhibitions of various types were held across China from January to September last year, a year-on-year rise of 1.8 times and an increase of 32.4% over the same period in 2019. China has become one of the top three countries in the global exhibition industry, said David DuBois, president and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, adding that he is very optimistic that China’s exhibition industry will continue to grow rapidly. “This is a vivid example of how China’s determination of opening-up drives global economic confidence,” said Qu Weixi, vice president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Economic globalization has faced headwinds and countercurrents, but China has enhanced the linkage between domestic and international markets and resources with high-density, high-specification and high-quality exhibitions, demonstrating an effective driving role in the development of an open world economy. (Xinhua) | 