HELSINKI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Five Finnish companies have registered to take part in the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) slated for November this year in Shanghai.
The information was disclosed at a road show event at the Chinese Embassy in Finland on Tuesday. Over one hundred business people attended the event that was aimed to promote the CIIE.
Last year, around 100 Finnish companies participated in the first CIIE, and 20 different agreements were signed to the tune of several billion U.S. dollars, said Jusa Susia, a representative from Business Finland.
As the head of region in charge of east Asia affairs, Susia said Finland was probably one of the biggest CIIE participants if considering the size of its population and number of companies in the country.
Besides the commercial agreements, according to Meltwater, a media intelligence company, Finland also achieved media hits that potentially reached millions of readers. "Therefore, Finland sees CIIE a great potential opportunity for further promoting Finnish export to China," he added.
Addressing the event, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan affirmed that the CIIE denotes "a new round of high-level opening up" of the Chinese market.
The visiting vice minister said China, with its 1.4 billion strong population and a huge consumption base, is expected to import goods worth over 30 trillion U.S. dollars and services exceeding the value of ten trillion U.S. dollars in the next 15 years.
"China will provide a stable source for global economic growth. We also offer great opportunity for business across the world," he said.
Over 1,800 companies were reported to have registered for the second CIIE by early April, and 900 of them have confirmed participation as exhibitors. The reserved exhibition area exceeded 200,000 square meters in total.
