China has been moving its investment promotion and business exhibitions online to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

A signing ceremony is held at a livestreaming investment promotion event in Nanchang county of Nanchang city, in east China’s Jiangxi province on March 9. (Photo by Peng Zhaozhi/Xinhua)

The State Council’s executive meeting on April 7 decided to hold the 127th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) online in mid-to-late June, for the first time in its history. Since its inception in 1957 in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province, it is called the barometer and weathervane of the country’s foreign trade.

According to Ren Hongbin, China’s assistant minister of commerce, the fair will mainly feature an online matching platform, a cross-border e-commerce zone and live-streaming marketing services.

Ren added that it will create an online foreign trade platform, running 24 hours a day for 10 days, for exhibitors and purchasers to provide online promotion, supply-purchase matching and online negotiations, allowing domestic and foreign businessmen to place orders and do business while staying home.

All 25,000 exhibitors will display their products online, supplying each exhibitor with a live broadcast studio with 24-hour connectivity.

Another top-tier event for the business world, the third China International Import Expo (CIIE), is introducing “cloud signing”. The first online overseas roadshow of the third CIIE was held in east China’s Shanghai on April 9, attracting more German exhibitors to the event later this year.

“We launch online promotional events and develop new ways to attract exhibitors and strengthen their confidence,” said Liu Fuxue, vice director of the CIIE bureau.

Local authorities in China have also held online investment promotional activities. The Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong province launched an online investment promotion system for this purpose.

In Qingdao on April 9, in east China’s Shandong province, a “cloud signing” ceremony was held at the Qingdao International Economic Cooperation Zone. The two parties, Qingdao Centre for Business & Commerce (Hong Kong), and the Central and Eastern Europe-China Science and Technology Exchange Association will bring European enterprise of advanced technologies to the city.

“The pandemic has caused serious disruption to international exchanges, but we managed to sign the project online from the very beginning in just one month,” said Jiao Chao, head of the association.