Despite the current slowdown in world demand, Chinese exporters have shown a great interest in participating in the upcoming China Import and Export Fair, a gauge of the state of China's foreign trade.

"More Chinese companies are hoping to attract foreign buyers by showing their products at the fair," Liu Jianjun, spokesman for the fair, said on Tuesday.The twice-a-year fair, also widely known as the Canton Fair, will open on Sunday in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.

Chinese businesses have submitted more than 100,000 applications to reserve exhibition booths at the event. That is almost double the number of booths that will be provided by the fair’s organizing committee, Liu said.

"We can only approve 60 percent of the applications from domestic companies," Liu said, noting that the fair's spring session will have 700 more booths than the event did a year ago.

About 20,000 Chinese exporters will display their products at the fair, he added.

?"In the complicated global trade situation, there are still many Chinese enterprises that have remained confident about their ability to sell products to the overseas market," he said.

In another development, about 200,000 foreign buyers, slightly fewer than were present at the latest session, are predicted to attend the spring fair, Liu said. The organizing committee for the fair plans to invite about 1.1 million domestic and foreign buyers to the event, a number up 12 percent from the previous session.

The reporter can be reached at qiuquanlin@chinadaily.com.cn