DESPITE offline campaigns being suspended due to the latest COVID-19 resurgence, the time-honored China Import and Export Fair concluded its 131st biannual session Sunday in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou with many new records.

The 10-day-long event, also known as the Canton Fair, attracted a record-high of over 25,000 domestic and overseas exhibitors with over 3 million exhibits displayed online. Over 30 percent of the exhibits made their debut while over 480,000 exhibits featured green and low carbon.

The online exhibition hall received over 6.2 million visits over the past 10 days. A total of 210,500 electronic business cards were issued by exhibitors, and about 100,000 online conversations were held by overseas buyers.

Among those domestic exhibitors in this session of the Canton Fair, 18,400 enterprises were engaged in exports in the first quarter of the year, with a total export value of over 440 billion yuan (US$ 67.7 billion), up 6.8% year on year, according to the latest statistics from the Guangzhou Customs.

The number of overseas purchasers registered for the fair hit a record high of 536,000 from 228 countries and regions.

Overseas buyers registered for the 131st session increased by 48% compared with the 129th session and 41.8% compared with the 130th session, said Xu Bing, spokesperson for the fair.

Among them, 298,100 buyers were from countries along the Belt and Road, accounting for more than 55 percent of the total buyers, while 150,800 buyers were from members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), accounting for over 28%, Xu said.

The online Canton Fair for the fifth time with substantial transactions demonstrates China’s unswerving resolve to stabilize the global industrial chain and supply chain as it further embraces the digital economy amid the protracted COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to the enhanced digitization level, numerous online browsing and negotiations were able to be carried out smoothly at the Canton Fair.

An intentional order worth US$300,000 for bathroom products was reached between Bangladeshi buyer Idirs and the Chinese company ORANS Co. Ltd., which is based in Zhejiang Province and mainly manufactures and sells intelligent sanitary ware, shortly after Idirs watched the company’s live-streaming and had a one-to-one video communication with its engineer. (Xinhua)