The Fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), held in Shanghai from Saturday to Thursday, will help boost China’s high-quality economic development, widen opening-up, and achieve win-win results for both importers and exporters.
The International Monetary Fund recently reduced global growth forecast to 2.7% for 2023 while maintaining China’s growth forecast at 4.5-5%. China’s stable and relatively high economic growth, signified by rising demand for both imports and exports and modest inflationary pressure, have provided the perfect market ecology for businesses.
This year’s CIIE is bigger than the previous expos with more industrial sectors represented across companies. It stresses that “China is open for business.”
By overcoming the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese economy has highlighted its robust and resilient nature. It has not only recovered faster and more consistently than most other economies, but also realized positive growth and further integrated with the global economy.
A Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey provided irrefutable evidence of the Chinese economy’s further opening up. The survey’s findings show the Chinese currency is gaining in both usage and credibility across the world. The yuan has become one of the major currencies with which business is conducted in international markets, and expanded by the largest margin in recent years.
Specifically, the survey’s results indicate the yuan is now the fifth most traded currency globally, up from the eighth place in 2019. It ranks after the U.S. dollar, the euro, British pound and the Japanese yen in the settlement of foreign trade.
The BIS is an international financial institution owned by 65 central banks whose main remit is to nurture global monetary and financial cooperation.
The BIS survey’s findings is also consistent with the latest data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), an organization which provides a network that enables financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized and reliable environment.
SWIFT data show the yuan accounted for around 2.4% of global payments in September, up from 2.3% from a month earlier, indicating the further opening-up of the Chinese market.
The CIIE is expected to further the Chinese economy’s integration into the global market and raise the international clout of the yuan.
The fifth import expo will focus on the growth of industrial sectors related to digital technology and sustainable development, for example, the renewable energy sector.
This year’s expo will showcase the amazing business opportunities across China’s rapidly growing entertainment and fashion sectors. For instance, Chinese fashion designers and fashion brands continue to be lauded at major international fashion shows. Take the example of MARRKNULL, a unisex ready-to-wear brand founded by Mark Wang and Tim Shi in 2016.
It is true, however, that China’s dynamic clearance policy to prevent the spread of the COVID has drawn criticism. But a cursory glance at China’s economic achievements will make it clear that without such a firm, decisive approach, the Chinese economy would not have recovered so quickly and impressively. In fact, China’s dynamic clearance, painful in the short term, should be applauded, because it bolsters the international business and investment communities’ confidence in the Chinese economy.
This year’s CIIE, like a window for the global business and investment community to look closely at China, will provide yet another opportunity for them to see the technological advancement that underpins the Chinese market, and the Chinese authorities’ resoluteness to further open up the Chinese economy.
While the global economy struggles to recover from the impacts of multiple shocks including the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Chinese economy is further opening up and creating opportunities for all.