Despite the global market uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the confidence and interest that foreign companies have in the Chinese market appear unchanged, with the value of tentative deals reached for one-year purchases of goods and services at the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) hitting $72.62 billion, a 2.1 percent year-on-year increase.

The expo, which ended on Nov 10, took up nearly 360,000 square meters of exhibition space, an increase of nearly 30,000 sq m from the previous edition. Nearly 400,000 professional visitors and over 3,000 Chinese and foreign journalists attended the event.

Statistics showed that 411 new products, technologies and services made their China or global debuts at this year's CIIE, according to Sun Chenghai, Deputy Director-General of the CIIE Bureau.

The Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products exhibition area accounted for over 120 technology and product debuts. The world's top 10 pharmaceutical and top 14 medical equipment manufacturing companies all attended the event.

Nearly 80 percent of the Fortune 500 Global companies present at this year's exhibition are repeat attendees. Consumer goods took up 90,000 sq m of exhibition space this year, the largest of all the sections.  

Meanwhile, the Food and Agricultural Products exhibition area hosted 1,264 companies from 93 countries, the most exhibitors among all sections.  

Over at the auto section, the latest products of the world's top seven carmakers were on display.

The Trade and Investment Matchmaking Conference, part of the third CIIE, borne fruit in both new deals and two-way investment. At the two-day event that ended on Nov 7, 861 intended cooperation deals were inked.  

The expo also featured a display of 100 world-class and national intangible cultural heritage items and 81 Chinese time-honored brands.

Hundreds of enterprises have signed up to participate in the fourth CIIE, which consists of six business exhibition areas — Intelligent Industry and Information Technology, Consumer Goods, Food and Agricultural Products, Medical Equipment and Healthcare Products, Automobiles, and Trade in Services.

First-time applicants will need to submit their company information at the expo's website www.ciie.org. Participants of this year's expo can renew their exhibitor status using their existing information.