Hongqiao a major window for Shanghai's opening-up

Shanghai is solidly pushing forward the construction of the Hongqiao International Open Hub and is accelerating efforts to further Hongqiao's role of being a growth driver in the Yangtze River Delta region, serving as a bridge connecting domestic and overseas markets.

The China International Import Expo has been successfully held in Hongqiao for five consecutive years since 2018 and has become an effective platform to promote the country's higher-level opening-up.

The spillover effect of the CIIE is continuously expanding, as 60 year-round trading and service platforms have been established since the first CIIE, with nearly 270,000 kinds of imported products worth over 323 billion yuan ($46.01 billion) introduced, said Zhang Guohua, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

"We will maximize the CIIE's functions in international procurement, investment promotion, cultural exchange and cooperation facilitation to continue to enhance the expo's quality," said Fang Hui, general manager of the import expo department of the National Convention Center (Shanghai), which is the permanent venue for the CIIE.

According to Fang, the global promotional events for the sixth CIIE have been held in over 10 countries and regions.

Over the past two years, Shanghai has been working to improve its opening-up level, with its actual use of foreign capital exceeding $330 billion. It is home to about 70,000 foreign-funded enterprises, which collectively generate about one quarter of the city's regional GDP, more than half of its industrial output value above designated size, as well as nearly two third of the megacity's import and export volume.