The 123rd China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opened at its permanent host city of Guangzhou, the capital of South China's Guangdong province, on April 15.

The fair, running until May 5, has attracted 25,171 exhibitors from both home and abroad, occupying a total of 60,475 exhibition booths and an exhibition area of 1.19 million square meters. The Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport witnessed a significant increase of foreign passengers over the past few days, with the peak passenger volume approaching 50,000 people per day. 

The 123rd China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opens at its permanent host city of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, on April 15. [Photo/Xinhua]

Growing global competitiveness

"Nowadays Chinese products have become increasingly advanced and innovative; we have great confidence in the future market." Zhang Xuemei, an executive of a water-pump exporter, Guangzhou Bedford Electrical Equipment Company, told Yangcheng Evening News.

According to Zhang, although some emerging economies have relatively lower labor costs, Chinese products boast complete industrial chains and high reliability. Moreover, Chinese manufactures are faster at innovating products: it takes them a couple of months to design a new product and then mass produce it and put it on the market, while Western manufacturers might require years to achieve the same result.

Many companies felt that the recent trade conflict between the United States and China should not only be seen as added pressure but also as a motivating factor for their businesses.

Chen Xiaoli, from Topray Solar Co, a photovoltaic products exporter, said, the trade protectionist policy adopted by the US government would not have a significant impact on the market, because Chinese photovoltaic products have a wide range of clients. The demands in emerging economies like Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America are growing rapidly. Additionally, Chinese enterprises are making technological breakthroughs in the industrial chain; in material, silicon wafers, photovoltaic glass, components, appliances, and consumer goods, with global competitiveness growing as time goes by.

The permanent host site of the Canton Fair, the China Import and Export Fair Complex, is the world's largest exhibition center. [Photo/Xinhua]

Self-designed high-quality products

Exporters at the Canton Fair have gradually reached a consensus on the importance of promoting high- quality products in the world. "We are selective in our choice of clients and would rather abandon the clients that value nothing but low prices," said Lu Qianjin，from Zhuhai Ceiec. Lu believed it is short-sighted to grab market share through cutting prices while ignoring product quality. Relying on high-quality products and tailor-made services, his company has been obtaining plenty of orders from education, catering, and banking sectors in foreign markets. "We have begun to strongly promote our self-designed brands in the world and have added particular value to international e-commerce. And our strategies have started to take effect," Lu added.

The 123rd Canton Fair has optimized the industrial structure of the exhibits, showcasing products with better quality and higher added values. Some of the exhibitors arranged their exhibits very carefully, 80 percent of which are with recently introduced products.

Foreign merchants are inquiring about building materials at the Canton Fair on April 15. [Photo/Xinhua]

Intelligent home appliances

At the section exhibiting home electronics, a shoe-washing machine made by Haier captured the attention of many visitors. This rarely-seen shoe-washing machine takes up little space via drawer-type designs and utilizes high-pressure liquid to deeply clean material fibers. Another eye-catching home appliance is a smart bathroom. It has a user-friendly temperature controller and can measure user's health indicators. Intelligent home appliances could meet the demand of high-end consumers' needs in Europe, a European merchant commented on site.

Zhuhai JPE Electric Appliance Company presented a smart LED television set at the fair. Users could write words by hand and erase them again on the screen with great ease, making the set perfect for conferences. The advanced techniques represented by the TV set attracted numerous European visitors.

Lots of Chinese exhibitors stated that the international market demands saw a steady rise in recent months and that they are very optimistic about future foreign trade.