Guangzhou to host Intl Trade Services Expo in June

The Canton Tower stands in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on April 17, 2018. [Photo/VCG]

The first International Trade Services Expo will be held on June 2 in Guangzhou, aimed at promoting trade facilitation, a media briefing announced on Tuesday.

The expo, jointly held by the China Customs Brokers Association and China Association of Trade in Services, is the first of its kind and will last three days. It will be a platform to facilitate the display, communication and cooperation of international trade services.

It is estimated that participants will include five international industry organizations, 15 national industry organizations, over 30 provincial and municipal-level industry organizations, over 1,000 enterprises and 100 institutions. More than 10 forums related to international trade services will be held, and more than 100 programs will be displayed, attracting a total of over 10,000 visitors from home and abroad.

"Since the reform and opening-up, China's foreign trade has achieved leap-forward development. China's international trade has achieved great success, and the success is closely related to the support of the international trade service industry," said Ge Liancheng, president of CCBA. 

He noted that the International Trade Services Expo was established in response to the concept of further optimization of the foreign trade structure mentioned in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) to promote the development of an international trade service mode, and to boost the upgrade of import and export trade capacity. 

"Also, the expo aims at promoting sustainable economic growth, and the orderly development of international business exchanges and cooperation," Ge said.

According to the sponsors, the expo will cover all service formats along the entire industrial chain of international trade, including traditional formats, such as customs clearance, warehousing, transportation, and new-emerging formats, such as cross-border e-commerce, supply chain and international trade comprehensive service. New technologies that can be applied in trade services, such as artificial intelligence, big data and Internet Plus, also will be displayed.

"For those overseas nonprofit organizations, large foreign trade enterprises that participate in the expo and join our service platform in Shanghai, we offer monetary support for them to conduct substantive business activities," said Tian Guofeng, deputy secretary-general of CATS.