China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, is an important channel for China’s foreign trade and a window of China’s opening up. It plays a key role in advancing the development of China’s foreign trade and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the rest of the world. It is also renowned as “China’s No. 1 Fair”.
The Canton Fair is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of PRC and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province and organised by China Foreign Trade Centre. It is held every spring and autumn in Guangzhou, China.
Since its establishment in 1957, the Canton Fair has enjoyed the longest history, the largest scale, the biggest buyer attendance, the most diverse buyer origin, the most complete product variety, and the best business turnover in China for 134 sessions. The 134th Canton Fair attracted overseas buyers from 229 countries and regions, including 197,869 who attended onsite and 453,857 online.
The 135th Canton Fair is scheduled to open on April 15, 2024 with a total exhibition scale of 1.55 million square metres. This session will provide global buyers with a one-stop trading platform featuring complete exhibit variety, quality products with competitive price, and convenient, efficient and reliable services.
Highlights of the 135th session are:
First, continuous optimisation of exhibition structure. Focused on “advanced manufacturing”, Phase I will present conventional industries such as machinery and electrical equipment, and technology-intensive emerging sectors to show the new image of Chinese manufacturing. Marked by “quality home life”, Phase II will be joined by suppliers of diverse and quality household items to deliver the concept of “integrated home furnishing”. Under the theme of “better life”, Phase III will exhibit products meeting people’s living demands and the sourcing demand for new consumption.
Second, various premium companies gathered. Over 28,000 selected competitive and reputable exhibitors will participate in this session onsite and online, facilitating one-stop sourcing for overseas buyers. Among them, more than 4,000 exhibitors are national high-tech enterprises, manufacturing single champions and specialised and sophisticated small and medium enterprises, demonstrating the leading force of Chinese manufacturing.
Third, large number of exhibits. More quality products will be displayed by optimising arrangement of product zones, centralised display of same product categories, enhancing product verification, and organising Canton Fair Design Award (CF Award) and new products release activities.
A vast of new products, green and low-carbon, smart and innovative products will be presented. 2.7 million products will be uploaded onto the Canton Fair online platform to offer abundant and high-quality choices for global buyers. Companies from formerly poor districts of more than 20 autonomous regions will also bring original and green products with distinctive regional features.
Fourth, diverse supporting activities. Nearly 200 Trade Bridge matchmaking events will be staged. More industry-tailored events will improve trade matchmaking efficiency and benefit more exhibitors and buyers. Eight “Discover Canton Fair with Bee and Honey” activities of different themes will be hosted to demonstrate to global buyers the extraordinary charm of “Intelligent Manufacturing in China”.
To improve the branding and specialisation of Canton Fair forums, 6 to 8 industry forums will be held, where industry experts, directors of leading companies and representatives of trade service organisations will be invited to share industry insights and trade information with attending buyers and suppliers.
In addition, 141 award-winning products will be displayed in the CF Award exhibition hall to provide an efficient sourcing platform for buyers. Nearly 400 product release activities will be staged where CF Award winners and industry leading enterprises will be invited to participate, demonstrating numerous new products, fantastic highlights and boundless opportunities.
Fifth, improved efficiency of entering the Canton Fair Complex. To facilitate the attendance of global exhibitors and buyers, the 135th Canton Fair will continue to provide pre-registration and badge application at alternative registration offices in advance. Overseas buyers can apply for badges at airports and designated hotels or scan the pre-registration code and get a badge application receipt in advance to enter the Canton Fair Complex more efficiently.
The International Pavilion was inaugurated in the 101st session to promote balanced growth of import and export and to help international companies explore the Chinese and global markets. After 34 years of development, over 17,000 overseas enterprises from more than 100 countries and regions have participated in the International Pavilion as high-quality national and regional pavilions, including many world-renowned enterprises.
For the 135th session, adhering to the concept of “openness, cooperation, integration and sharing”, the International Pavilion will boast a scale of 30,000 square meters, with 10,000 square meters in each phase. The product categories in each phase are basically the same as that of the National Pavilion.
Canton Fair Product Design and Trade Promotion Center (PDC), since its establishment in the 109th session has served as a design service platform to bridge “Made in China” and “Designed by World” and to facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation between excellent designers from all over the world and quality Chinese companies. For this session, PDC will gather global design innovation resources.
Through holding design displays, forums, trend sharing conferences, match-making events and other activities, PDC will provide various forms of display and exchange platforms for domestic and overseas design agencies, exhibitors and buyers.
The Canton Fair witnesses the development of China’s foreign trade and IPR protection, especially the progress of IPR protection in the exhibition industry. Since 1992, it has been working hard to protect intellectual property for 30 years. By formulating and implementing Complaints about and Settlement Provisions for Suspected Intellectual Property Infringement in the Canton Fair and Temporary Provision for IPR protection of Canton Fair Online Platform, a comprehensive chain of intellectual property protection before, during, and after the exhibition has been established.
Moreover, an IPR dispute settlement mechanism has also been built, which is relatively complete and suits the Fair’s practical situation and online-offline integration. Therefore, the Canton Fair has raised the exhibitors’ awareness on IPR protection and demonstrated the Chinese government’s determination of respecting and protecting IPR. IPR protection at the Canton Fair has set the pattern for Chinese exhibitions; the just, professional and efficient dispute settlement has won the trust and recognition of Dyson, Nike, Travel Sentry Inc, Sanrio and so on.
The schedule of the onsite exhibition of the 135th Canton Fair:
Phase 1: April15-19, 2024;
Phase 2: April 23-27, 2024;
Phase 3: May 1-May5, 2024;
The intervals: April 20-22 and
April 28-30, 2024.
The online platform will be open for half a year: March 16-September 15, 2024.
