PUSHING FORWARD WITH GLOBALIZATION

China is moving to upgrade its economy by welcoming imports

TThe author is vice president of China/

Asia Pacific strategy and global digital practices at consulting firm Tompkins International he first China International Import Expo (CIIE), a weeklong event, kicked off on November 5 in Shanghai after an opening keynote speech from President Xi Jinping in which he highlighted China’s commitment to the principles of free trade, globalization, and reforms that will make it easier for foreign companies to sell their products in China.

A commitment to globalism

In a climate where global trade tensions are at their highest in decades, where companies and governments around the world are seeking greater access to the Chinese market and where technology, digital commerce, and new retail have made it possible to buy, sell and trade products cross-border, this first of its kind event could not have come at a better time.

The timing of the fair is also important because 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, launched in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping when China began its shift to a more market-based economy focused on manufacturing, exports and the modernization of the country and the economy.

When I arrived in China for the first time in the early 2000s, one of my first forays out of Beijing was to the autumn China International Import and Export Fair more commonly known as the Canton Fair, held in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. The Canton Fair was (and is) where tens of thousands of people and companies converge twice a year (October and April) to meet thousands of Chinese manufacturers and trading companies to buy, source and produce goods of every imaginable shape, size, and purpose. The total floor area for the show is the size of 71 Walmart Superstores.

Even more awe-inspiring than the size of the show and the number of vendors was the incredible diversity of the attendees. Moving through the aisles, shoulder to shoulder, women in traditional Nigerian dresses, men in traditional Arab headdresses and robes, Germans in suit and tie, Indians in saris and Nehru shirts, Americans wearing baseball caps, and Israelis in Fedoras and fur.

At any moment in any given spot, you could hear a half dozen languages being spoken. I felt like I had traveled back in time to a Silk Road marketplace or the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul. I could almost smell the spices and feel the silks of those great gatherings of commerce. The key lesson for me was that business transcends culture, language, dress, and politics. The Canton Fair was in many real and symbolic ways the gateway to China for the world in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s and the symbol of China’s rise to be the top manufacturing country it came to be known as.

The latest iteration of the Canton Fair finished just days before the kick-off of the new CIIE. That transition tells, in many ways, the journey China has been on for the last 20 years as it shifts its economy from low-cost manufacturing and exports to consumption,