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The first China International Import Expo attracted exhibitors from 172 countries and regions. Among them, countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" participated enthusiastically, reaching 1/3. During the Expo, government agencies, central enterprises and financial institutions held some activities aimed at providing corresponding support for trade docking with areas along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route. The CIIE will become a trade highway connecting the "Belt and Road" and accelerate the economic and trade cooperation between China and these countries.

　　Participating enthusiastically

In the past five years, the "Belt and Road" has gathered a new consensus on win-win cooperation among all parties, and has received positive responses and support from more and more countries and international organizations. From 2013 to 2017, China's total trade in goods with countries along the route has exceeded 5 trillion US dollars. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in 2017, my country's imports and exports to countries along the "Belt and Road" were 7.37 trillion billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.8 percent, accounting for 26.5 percent of my country's total foreign trade value. Exports were 4.3 trillion yuan, up 12.1 percent, and imports were 3.07 trillion yuan, up 26.8 percent. In the first two months of this year alone, China's imports and exports to countries along the "Belt and Road" reached 1.26 trillion billion yuan, an increase of 21.9 percent. In the next 15 years, China is expected to import 30 trillion US dollars of goods, and the "Belt and Road" countries will get more opportunities.

More than 1000 enterprises from 58 "Belt and Road Initiative" countries participated in the Expo, with an exhibition area of 45000 square meters, accounting for 16.5 percent of the total exhibition area. The exhibitors from along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route include not only local traditional advantageous industries, but also characteristic products and high-quality services that have made new breakthroughs in recent years. Exhibitors include industrial robots, digital factories, "unmanned cars", clothing, consumer goods, food and agricultural products. Some countries also organized display and promotion activities during the fair. The participating companies along the "Belt and Road" all hope to seize the opportunity, display their image, start their brands, discover business opportunities, and then enter China and the world.

Egypt in Africa was one of the first countries to sign a memorandum of understanding with China to jointly build the "Belt and Road. As the host country of the Expo, Egypt will focus on displaying elements related to Egyptian industry, commerce and tourism. Exhibits related to agricultural products, food, textiles, handmade products, furniture, engineering and leather products.

Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Gruzdev said that the CIIE will find new growth points for Russia-China economic, trade and investment cooperation. The Russian enterprises participating in the Expo are divided into five categories: food and agricultural products, high-tech equipment, medical equipment and products, service industry and consumer goods. Among them, agriculture occupies the largest booth.

Malaysia in Southeast Asia organized nearly a hundred companies to participate in the CIIE to showcase their high value-added products. The pavilion was jointly organized by a number of Malaysian institutions and opened high-tech, service trade, food and other exhibition areas.

Liang Ming, director of the Institute of Foreign Trade of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the CIIE has become an open cooperation platform for countries along the "Belt and Road" to showcase their national development achievements and carry out international trade. Many high-quality products from countries along the "Belt and Road" originally lacked the opportunity to meet with Chinese buyers, but this time it provided a good opportunity.

Li Jun, director of the Institute of International Trade in Services of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said that unlike developed countries such as Europe and the United States, the degree of internationalization of enterprises in many countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route is not high, and there are not many high-end and high-quality products. The Expo provides a good stage and channels for these countries to help less developed countries have more opportunities to share China's market opportunities and participate in economic globalization.

　　Financial support

There are many developing countries along the "Belt and Road". Financial support is indispensable to truly expand economic and trade cooperation with China and realize trade liberalization and facilitation. At present, China has approved the "Guiding Principles for Financing of the Belt and Road" with relevant countries, and has carried out joint financing cooperation with a number of international banks to promote product and business model innovation and create a stable financing environment for the construction of the "Belt and Road.

At the "Belt and Road Initiative" Trade and Financial Cooperation and Innovation Forum held during the Expo, financial and business leaders from more than 30 countries conducted in-depth discussions on the opportunities brought by the "Belt and Road Initiative" initiative and China's financial opening for the development of international trade, best practices in trade and financial products and services, and the latest trends in the development of financial science and technology. It is hoped that financial institutions will further explore cooperation in optimizing cross-border trade services.

He Yalun, CEO of the Asia-Pacific Europe-Africa region of SWIFT, suggested that financial institutions should speed up cooperation in the construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" financial infrastructure and constantly improve the efficiency of cross-border trade payments.

Trade finance experts from Standard Chartered Bank, Standard Bank Group, Oriental Huili, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Abu Dhabi First Bank and Maybank shared the product and service innovation of various institutions around the "Cross-border Trade Facilitation and Financial Integrated Service Program" Success.

Francisco Gonzales, President of the National Foreign Trade Bank of Mexico, and Roland Boim, a member of the board of directors of Commerzbank, both agreed that the "Belt and Road" initiative will continue to provide impetus to China's economic growth and will integrate cross-border supply chains and trade risks. Management, diversification of transportation models, upgrading of trade products, and digital processing provide more opportunities.

Lu Pingxin of Pakistan's Habi Bank Beijing Representative Office said that Habi Bank has supported many "Belt and Road" China-Pakistan projects, and the Beijing Representative Office will continue to serve as a bridge between China and Pakistan.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China stated that it will work with members of the "Belt and Road" inter-bank normalized cooperation mechanism to study the financial needs of countries along the route, continuously optimize trade and financial products and service innovations, and promote global payments, credit enhancement guarantees, trade settlement financing, and cross-border RMB, Deepen cross-border financial cooperation in overseas investment and financing, customs clearance services, and hedging.

From the perspective of policy development banks and commercial banks, the guests also put forward cooperation ideas and cases on how Chinese financial institutions should seize the opportunity of financial opening up and promote "Belt and Road Initiative" and even global trade financing. Internet finance experts from PayPal, Citibank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Jingdong Finance, Yuxin Group and DBS Bank have deeply analyzed the direction and implementation path of optimizing the cross-border trade financial service model based on the development trends of financial technology such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, Internet of things and blockchain.

　　Results appear

On the third day of the Expo, the docking along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route has achieved results one after another, and some contracts have been signed.

On November 6, China Technology Import and Export Group Co., Ltd. and Siemens signed a supply contract for the main engine of the 400MW gas turbine power plant project in Bangladesh. AmrcusBrueckner, senior vice president of global EPC sales of Siemens Power Generation and Natural Gas Group, said that Siemens hopes to use Import Expo to expand its cooperation capabilities with Chinese companies, combine the advantages of Chinese manufacturing and German innovation, and jointly develop third-party market cooperation along the "Belt and Road.

On November 6, as one of the official supporting activities of the first China International Import Expo, the "Belt and Road Initiative" Ecological Agriculture and Food Safety Forum, jointly sponsored by the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration and the Chinese people's Association for Friendship with Foreign countries, witnessed the signing ceremony of the demonstration base of "Belt and Road Initiative" pastoral complex. Agricultural and food companies in countries along the "Belt and Road" can have new opportunities to provide Chinese consumers with more high-quality agricultural products and food.

Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Products E-commerce Center Co., Ltd. and the ASEAN-Thailand Chinese Merchants and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Chamber of Commerce, South Africa-China Cross-border E-commerce Association and other projects were also signed on the 6th.

In terms of the introduction of goods from countries along the "Belt and Road", Suning has previously tried to directly purchase from these countries, and through the use of Suning's online and offline linkage advantages, it will be sold simultaneously across the country. It is reported that during the CIIE, Suning will host the "2018 Suning Global Procurement and Supply Summit" to explore new opportunities for retail cooperation with brands from all over the world, and continue to strengthen trade exchanges with countries along the "Belt and Road.