Welcome to the 133rd Canton Fair held in April 2023, and the introduction to the 133rd Canton Fair
Introduction to the 133rd Canton Fair
The China Import and Export Commodities Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, is an important channel for China’s foreign trade and an important window for opening up to the outside world. It has played a very important role in promoting the development of China’s foreign trade and promoting Sino foreign economic and trade exchanges and cooperation, and is known as the “First Exhibition in China”.
The Canton Fair is co hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, and hosted by the China Foreign Trade Center. It is held in Guangzhou, China, every spring and autumn. Since its establishment in 1957, the Canton Fair has maintained the characteristics of the longest history, the largest scale, the largest number of buyers, the widest range of countries, the most complete range of goods, and the best transaction results of China’s exhibitions. So far, it has successfully held 132 sessions. The 132nd Canton Fair registered 510000 overseas buyers online, from 229 countries and regions, highlighting the great commercial value of the Fair and the importance of providing support for global trade.
The 133rd Canton Fair is scheduled to open on April 15th. Its main features and highlights include: First, expanding the exhibition scale and consolidating China’s position as the first exhibition. The offline exhibition will be fully restored, and will continue to be held in three phases. Four phases of the exhibition hall will be opened for the first time, expanding the exhibition area from 1.18 million to 1.5 million square meters. The second is to optimize the exhibition structure and display the latest level of industrial development. Optimize the layout of exhibition areas, add new themes, highlight trade upgrading, industrial progress, and technological innovation achievements. The third is online and offline integration, accelerating digital transformation. Accelerate online and offline integration and digitization, enabling enterprises to fully digitize their participation processes, including application for exhibition, booth arrangement, exhibition organization, and on-site exhibition preparation. Fourth, strengthen precise investment promotion and explore the global customer source market. Open the door to invite overseas buyers and fully open to domestic buyers. Fifth, expand forum activities and add investment promotion functions. In 2023, the second the Pearl River Forum will be held in the mode of 1+N, creating a highland of international trade opinions, giving voice to the Canton Fair and contributing to its wisdom.
This Canton Fair has carefully prepared a comprehensive one-stop service for global buyers, including trade matching, on-site courtesies, participation awards, etc., covering new and old buyers, connecting online and offline, and continuing the entire process before, during, and after the exhibition. Specifically, it includes: delivering the latest features, highlights, and core values to global fans through nine social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter; Hold four major categories of “Trade Bridge” activities, including multinational enterprises, specific regions, specific industries, and provincial and municipal themes, to help buyers timely grasp industry trends, connect high-quality suppliers, and quickly find products in demand; Organize multiple “Haobao, Haoni, Guangjiao” activities with different themes, add on-site factory visit and booth display links, and help buyers achieve “zero distance” participation; Hold “Advertising for New Customers” activities to benefit new customers; Provide on-site services such as VIP clubs for purchasers, organize offline salons, “online clocking, offline incentives” and other activities, and provide value-added services; Focus on optimizing the page settings and function usage of the official website, including pre registration, pre release, pre matching, and other functions, to provide high-quality services and convenience for buyers to participate in online and offline exhibitions.
In order to expand imports and promote the balanced development of import and export trade, the Canton Fair has established import exhibition areas since the 101st session. Over the past 16 years, its level of specialization and internationalization has steadily improved, providing great convenience for overseas enterprises to explore Chinese and global consumer markets. This year, Türkiye, South Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and other countries and regions will actively organize delegations to participate in the exhibition, focus on displaying the regional image and characteristic products, and highlight the influence of industrial clusters. Germany, Spain, Egypt and other international excellent enterprises participated actively in the exhibition. This Import Expo will further improve the convenience level of international enterprises, optimize the admission qualifications of international exhibitors, and attract more qualified high-quality multinational enterprises, international brands, overseas enterprise branches, overseas brand agents, and import platforms to participate; 1、 The 16 major commodity categories in Phase II and Phase III are all open to international enterprises for application.
Since the establishment of the 109th Canton Fair, the “Product Design and Trade Promotion Center” (PDC) has actively promoted mutually beneficial cooperation between “Made in China” and “World Design”, providing a design service platform for global outstanding designers to unite with Chinese high-quality enterprises and achieve win-win cooperation. Over the years, PDC has been closely aligned with market demand. Currently, it has developed businesses such as design exhibitions, design docking and theme forums, design delivery, design galleries, design incubation platforms, fashion weeks at the Canton Fair, design concept stores, and online PDC, which have gained widespread recognition in the market.
The Canton Fair has not only participated in the development of China’s foreign trade, but also witnessed the progress of China’s intellectual property protection, especially the protection of intellectual property rights at exhibitions. Since 1992, after 30 years of unremitting efforts, the Canton Fair has established a relatively complete intellectual property complaint handling mechanism centered on the current “Complaints and Handling Measures for Suspected Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights at the Canton Fair”, which is suitable for the characteristics of the exhibition and integrates the needs of offline and online platforms. This has enhanced the awareness of enterprises’ intellectual property protection and demonstrated the determination of the Chinese government to respect and protect intellectual property rights. As a model of intellectual property protection at Chinese exhibitions, the fair’s fair, professional, and efficient complaint handling has won the trust and praise of merchants such as Dyson from the United Kingdom, Nike from the United States, and Lvan from the United States.
Preliminary arrangement for offline exhibition period of the 133rd Canton Fair:
Phase I: April 15-19, 2023;
Phase II: April 23-27, 2023;
Phase III: May 1-5, 2023;
Renewal period: April 20-22, 2023, April 28-30.
Any extension adjustments will be notified separately.
The online platform service time is half a year (March 16th to September 15th, 2023).
For details, please see www.cantonflir.org.cn
