Interview: CIIE comes as boon to revitalize world economy, say Bangladeshi experts

The upcoming China International Import Expo (CIIE) has been a big boon to revitalize the world economy, Bangladeshi experts said on Tuesday.

Experts here believed the mega expo in Shanghai is the most significant event which China has so far arranged because it demonstrates China's renewed determination to open its door wider for trade and investment amid the rise of protectionism.

They said the CIIE, to be held in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10, will open up enormous commercial opportunities fro participants from about 130 countries and regions, many of which have joined the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, proposed in 2013, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

Munshi Faiz Ahmad, chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), said this is a clear manifestation of Beijing's commitment to holding out its arms open wide to the world.

"This expo is a significant move from the end of top Chinese leadership to facilitate countries and regions all over the world to bolster economic and trade cooperation," said the BIISS chairman.

He said this will surely help promote global trade and world economic growth in order to advance the development of an open world economy.

Citing a report released by the Chinese government, Ahmad said China had lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty through 40 years of reform and opening-up. Against this backdrop, the expo in Shanghai is aimed at firmly supporting trade liberalization and economic globalization and actively opening the Chinese market to the world.

Ahmad said he saw domestic consumption as the most important driver of the Chinese economy, as suggested by the supply-side reforms, adding that the Chinese economy has also "shifted from quantity to quality with a sharp rise in the number of middle-income Chinese."

"China acts timely to support the countries facing economic hurdles in the face of an increasing protectionist tendency," said the expert.

Experts here said China is sincere in its efforts to build the expo into a world-class one so as to promote world economy and global trade as well as to achieve common prosperity.

Khandaker Golam Moazzem, research director of Bangladesh's Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told Xinhua that traditional Chinese trade fairs emphasized on what Chinese firms could sell to the global markets.

But for the first time, he said, a special event is organized to tout foreign companies selling to China.

The researcher from Bangladesh's leading think tank said the CIIE, for the participants, is not merely an opportunity to have more market in China but also elsewhere in the world.

He said the expo will be a platform for countries like Bangladesh to seek new untapped opportunities in commerce by establishing trade links with many countries and regions along the Belt and Road routes.

Undoubtedly, he said, opportunities lie for all countries to revitalize their economies.

If the expo meets its goal as set by China, Moazzem said, all the countries of the world, especially those which joined the Belt and Road Initiative, will yield maximum benefits for their people.

"So far we understand this (event) will emerge as an alternative to the current (trade) platforms of the world."