SFC Markets and Finance | CIIE 2024: A Platform Demonstrating China's Persistent Openness

南方财经全媒体记者李依农 见习记者梁旭琦 上海、广州报道

CIIE's Influence: Beyond Trade

From November 5 to 10, Shanghai is hosting the 7th CIIE. It’s more than just about trade numbers—it sparks a “spillover effect” that boosts trade, upgrades industries, drives consumer growth, and inspires new ideas. Former Italian Undersecretary Michele Geraci shares his take on these big impacts.

Michele Geraci: You have to see this not just as a trade fair only, but as the first platform to then develop more investment relationships between countries. And this is exactly what we need now because we have a lot of international tensions, problems, wars. We need to do business. The spillover effect could be an increase in exports from other countries into China. So this is what this fair is about. It's an import fair.

So, it's about other countries selling their own goods, their products into China, and then with the trade also comes investment. So the spillovers are not just on imports directly, but also on a new level of foreign investment into China.

Global Trade Perspectives from CIIE

With the theme “New Era, Shared Future,” this year’s CIIE highlights China’s strong commitment to global cooperation. Each event brings fresh energy and innovation, while the Expo’s focus on openness and shared opportunities stays the same. Our SFC reporter spoke with executives from multinational companies about the unique opportunities they see in China’s market.

Gustaf Salford，President and CEO at Elekta: For my company, Elekta, we're here for the 7th time. We are a meta company and have been part of the healthcare pavilion for the last 7 years. For me, Gustaf Salford, it's the second time I'm here, so I'm really looking forward to being part of CIIE again. Absolutely lots of achievements from previous expos. It has been about building partnerships. We have formed joint ventures with Chinese companies. We have also met a lot of our customers, so they can continue to invest in medical technology.

I think CIIE is a fantastic platform to both form partnerships and to meet new customers. I think that's so important. I think myself and my company, we are all for global openness, global free trade. I really welcome this kind of opening up. Elekta is a big part of it because we produce and develop a lot of new fantastic products, new healthcare technology in China and then we can export that to the rest of the world. But then also the Chinese market is very important for us. It's the second largest market for my company.

Boulogne Didier, Deputy CEO of Business France: We are Business France, a national agency that promotes France at the right location for foreign investments and supports French companies in exports. CIIE is an excellent platform for matching French companies with Chinese companies and conducting business. We are here to showcase what France is capable of in terms of technology and products. Business France is present at the CIIE every year; it's very important for us and represents a good relationship that could be even better. We're actively working to enhance our economic relationships by bringing French companies here to do business in China and by attracting Chinese investment to France.

We operate across all industries. Notably, the French are bringing goods related to agriculture and cultural industries. We are also involved in the aerospace industry and work on energy transition. These sectors are areas where we are dynamically engaged. In terms of industry, we are looking to form joint ventures with Chinese companies that are highly competitive in terms of technology.

Frank Hammes, CEO of IQAir: Every year I'm impressed because obviously, it's a big event in terms of organization. I can see that the journey is now going towards opening up, towards sustainability, green development, and health. This is what we are taking away. We really get to know and get to meet people here that we usually wouldn't get to know. And people come by our booth and we learn from them. We get to have deep conversations about some of the challenges, but also some of the opportunities.

And I think China right now is showing that it wants to lead the green development, the sustainable development. So for us, it's a good opportunity to participate. We see so many talented people coming from university who worked so hard and want to participate in the international experience, in making sure that China becomes part of the world. They can use their language skills, and they can use their science skills to make an impact. So I think this is exciting. We look forward to really being here and expanding our operation in China.

Björn Sattler, Senior VP / CFO,TCM of Boehringer Ingelheim (China) Investment Co., Ltd.: We appreciate all the policies the Chinese government is releasing. A lot of the policies are benefiting us when it comes to exchanging people with visa-free travel for a lot of nations. It's helping us not only to bring professionals to China but also to send our Chinese talent abroad. As an innovation-driven company, IP protection, for us, is always of the utmost importance, and we appreciate the progress China has made there over the recent years.

So for us, CIIE is a good holistic platform to showcase our latest innovation and to engage not only with colleagues from the Chinese market, but also with other players in the market and to see what other innovations are coming to China besides what we have to offer. China is a very attractive market. It's a key market for Boehringer Ingelheim. And I would like to say that we have a focus on China. For us, it's an interactive market because there's so much patient potential, so many patients that can benefit from our innovative pharmaceutical products.

We already made a decision years ago that China, for us, is a focus. And that we are investing in clinical research here at a very early stage.

Rick Kozloski, President of Alcon China: This year, I think again, we've had some great opportunities to enhance our partnerships. We've done something a little different this year too. Typically, we've showcased the current innovations in our product lines that we have here in China. But this year, we're also showcasing future innovations, things that aren't in China but will be in China in the near future. It's an opportunity that you don't have very often. It gives us an opportunity to have a voice.

China is one of the most important markets in the world to Alcon.You know, this is a market that again, there's a huge population of patients who have cataracts. It's the largest refractive error population in the world, about 700 million people. There's a huge myopia population that's growing.

So again, our vision is to help people see brilliantly. And we do that through our technologies, both in surgical and vision care with our contact lens solutions as well. So to us, it's a very important market because number one, we want to meet the needs of the patients. And again, it's one of the most important markets in the world just in terms of growth for Alcon. So we've been here now, it's our 30th anniversary. Next year, 2025, will be Alcon's 30th anniversary here in China. And it's been a great three decades, and I look forward to many decades more.

策划：于晓娜

监制：施诗

编辑：和佳

记者：李依农 见习记者梁旭琦

制作：李群

新媒体统筹：丁青云 曾婷芳 赖禧 黄达迅

海外运营监制: 黄燕淑

海外运营内容统筹: 黄子豪 

海外运营编辑：庄欢 吴婉婕 龙李华 张伟韬

出品：南方财经全媒体集团