China's commodities hub to host third annual e-commerce expo

A cooperation agreement signing ceremony is held during the press conference in Beijing, Oct 29, 2015.[Photo by Gao Qihui]

The 2016 China International Electronic Commerce Expo will be held next April in Yiwu city, East China’s Zhejiang province, where the expo will be held for the third straight year, according to a press conference held by the expo’s organizing committee in Beijing on Thursday.

The expo is jointly sponsored by the Zhejiang provincial government, China International Electronic Commerce Center, China Electronic Chamber of Commerce and Yiwu municipal government, under the guidance of the Ministry of Commerce of China and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

More than 2,000 booths will fill the exhibition area covering 50,000 square meters, which will be split into eight differently-themed zones.

The organizing committee received more than 400 reservations for nearly 1,000 booths by Oct 20, said Ge Guoqing, deputy party chief of Yiwu city, the world’s largest wholesale market of consumer goods, providing 1.8 million types of goods and drawing about 500,000 visits by overseas buyers every year.

In addition, many globally well-known cross-border e-commerce companies have expressed a clear willingness to take part in the 2016 expo, including Shopfans from the US, DHL, Paypal and China Post, according to Yao Zhaohai, deputy director of the China International Electronic Commerce Center.

Compared with this year’s expo, which concluded on April 13 and attracted 1,031 corporate exhibitors and more than 100,000 visits, the 2016 expo will feature more cross-border e-commerce delegates aimed at further boosting cross-border transactions, said Wang Ning, vice-president of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce.

Furthermore, a special exhibition zone composed of 200 to 300 booths will be reserved for online sellers, added Wang.

A number of sub-forum or events will be held during the expo, including a competition of e-commerce models who present goods for online sellers and the 2nd World Weishang (micro online business sellers) Conference, according to the organizing committee.

"We will see an expansion of the 2nd World Weishang Conference," Wang said.

"Confronted with the complicated international trade situation, we hope to better link China with the rest of the world and boost its trade with other countries through e-commerce," said Su Jun, an official from the China Association of Trade in Service.