Hainan expo features high-quality goods for global economic recovery
The fourth China International Consumer Products Expo will run from April 13 to 18 in Haikou, South China’s Hainan province. The expo will serve as a display and trading platform for global high-quality consumer goods, foster international cooperation and inject vigor into the ongoing efforts toward global economic recovery.
The expo will highlight the characteristics of international, China-chic, and island styles. The event aims to lead the new trends in digital, green, and healthy consumption, according to the event’s organizing committee.
Ireland will be the guest country of honor for this year’s event. The Irish National Pavilion will be designed around Irish culture and the country’s advantageous industries. It will showcase its renowned wine, agricultural products, shopping blocks, tourism promotion, and lifestyle and health sectors.
The fourth expo will set up a main exhibition area and three sub-exhibition areas, which are the exhibition area of new consumption scenes in China, the China International Consumer Products Expo Yacht Show and the 2024 China (Haikou) International Boat and Lifestyle Exhibition, and the Hainan (Lecheng) International Health Consumption Exhibition.
A lineup of eight themed events will feature, including a Global Consumer Innovation and Duty-free and Tourism Retail Conference, a China (Hainan)-Ireland Life Science Exchange Meeting and Hainan Free Trade Port International Education themed activities.
The expo will also feature eight other events, including official activities, new product debuts and launches, and product supply and demand matching.
Multinational giants attended the expo, eyeing the great potential of the Chinese market, which has become the world’s most promising consumer market with a total population of over 1.4 billion and more than 400 million middle-income earners.
As China’s economy continues to recover on a firm footing, the retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country’s consumption strength, increased by 33.9 percent year on year to 10.5 trillion yuan in the first quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The Chinese consumers’ rising demand for high-end consumer goods and services is expected to expand substantially and continuously, which will bring new trends and opportunities to the global market.
Justin Yifu Lin, honorary dean of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, said that China has the conditions to double its GDP scale by 2035, or its per capita income level in urban and rural areas, on the basis of 2020, adding that as people become wealthier, their demand for better lives will also be enhanced.
“The expo has brought new opportunities for global high-end brands to enter and expand the Chinese market,” said Swiss Ambassador to China Bernardino Regazzoni.
By connecting domestic and overseas markets, the expo will also help push the new development paradigm of “dual circulation” that allows the domestic and overseas markets to reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.
The expo marks a step forward in the construction of the Hainan free trade port as China released a master plan last June to build the island province into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.
Hainan has implemented a series of preferential policies such as visa-free entry, offshore duty-free shopping and a tax-exempt imports list, which has provided a good channel for overseas brands to enter the Chinese market.
“The appeal of the expo shows the effectiveness of the opening policy of the Hainan free trade port and the optimization of its business environment,” said Fabrice Megarbane, president and CEO of L’Oreal China. “Relying on the expo to develop the tourism retail market in Hainan will further release the consumption potential of China.”
A report jointly released recently by KPMG China and The Moodie Davitt found that the Hainan free trade port will likely become the world’s biggest duty-free market in the near term if it continues on its current growth curve.
Despite unilateralism and protectionism on the rise, China has been holding a series of national trade fairs over the years, such as the Canton Fair, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China International Import Expo, and the China International Consumer Products Expo, with an aim to turn its market into a global market, shared and accessible by all.
To honor its commitment to expanding all-round opening-up, China has also lowered tariffs, shortened its negative list for foreign investment, and eased market access in a number of sectors such as automobiles and financing for global investors.
（By CHEN BOWEN | chinadaily）