The annual China International Import Expo officially opened today.

It is reported that both the overall scale and the number of participating companies have reached new records.

A total of 461 new products, services, and technologies are making their debut at the event.

The CIIE has become a platform for connecting high-quality projects and attracting investment.

Many regions have held mobilization meetings, and numerous investment promotion teams have already headed to Shanghai.

On the opening day, which sectors are worth watching? What new trends are emerging among companies?

01 CIIE Day One: Coming Prepared

How to leverage the momentum of the CIIE to help exhibitors transition into investors has become a key focus for local governments participating in the event.

Before the fair began, many regions had already made meticulous preparations, pooling resources from various districts and counties to form professional, efficient investment promotion teams to travel to Shanghai.

Investment promotion representatives from Fujian, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Beijing, and other regions traveled thousands of miles to attend, while districts, counties, and sub-districts across Shanghai and its surrounding areas mobilized their full investment promotion forces.

With clear objectives in mind, they are determined to win this critical investment promotion campaign.

Investment promotion teams from various districts in Shanghai have undergone systematic training, covering everything from the highlights and unique features of this year’s CIIE to information on exhibiting companies, industry characteristics, and development status, all the way to optimizing investment promotion strategies—the teams have tackled each aspect one by one.

One investment promoter from the Qingpu Industrial Park remarked, “Rather than blindly ‘scanning the halls,’ we first thoroughly understand the ‘background’ of the exhibiting companies and then clarify the ‘resources’ of our own industrial park.”

As early as the preparatory phase for the CIIE, they meticulously sorted through the information of 4,108 overseas exhibitors, compiling detailed records of their booth locations, industry characteristics, and development status.

By combining “hall distribution” with “industry positioning,” they identified key target enterprises to ensure comprehensive, gap-free coverage during their “hall-by-hall” investment promotion efforts.

Some teams, facing heavy workloads, divided responsibilities to avoid internal competition and headed straight to the exhibition zones upon arrival.

One investment promoter, fully prepared and carefully studying the floor plan, remarked: “Today we’re heading to the medical devices zone. Our primary focus will be on the biopharmaceutical sector, followed by the brain-computer interface field…”

Inside the exhibition halls, the bustling figures of investment promoters engaging in in-depth discussions with company executives could be seen everywhere, covering topics ranging from product technology to future plans.

Their expressions revealed that the conversation was going quite well.

We spoke with one investment promoter, who candidly remarked, “Communicating directly with company management allows us to more accurately gauge their needs, recommend suitable resources, and pave the way for follow-up.”

We also observed that some Shanghai industrial parks had specially prepared CIIE investment promotion handbooks, clearly listing information of interest to companies—such as investment opportunities, industrial advantages, and talent services.

In some regions, dynamic project databases have been established, allowing departments and districts to share and circulate project information, rapidly match project resources, and fully support project implementation.

The intensive investment promotion efforts across various regions are just a snapshot of the spillover effects of the CIIE; even more opportunities for cooperation and room for exchange are taking shape.

02 Industry Giants Gather: Premieres and Debuts

This year’s CIIE is a major event with plenty of highlights, and the layout of key industries and leading enterprises is particularly worth noting for investment promoters.

As in previous years, the Medical Devices and Healthcare Exhibition Zone remains a major highlight.

Leading companies—including 12 Fortune 500 pharmaceutical firms, the three giants of medical imaging, and the three giants of radiation therapy equipment—are all in attendance, with global innovations in medical devices, technologies, solutions, and systems poised to make their debut.

As a “regular attendee” of the CIIE, Siemens Healthineers will bring three new devices from its “Photon-Counting CT Family” for their Asian debut.

Many companies are showcasing major debut products, such as the world’s first small-diameter controllable expandable vascular stent and the AI-powered hearing aid making its Asian debut.

This year, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence, embodied intelligent robots have permeated every corner of the CIIE.

From Zhiyuan Robotics to Tesla, Hexagon, and others, industry giants are showcasing their signature technologies, not only demonstrating cutting-edge innovations but also signaling the accelerated transition of humanoid robots from laboratories to mass production and everyday life.

Zhiyuan Robotics’ all-around “worker” has taken up its post. In the China Pavilion, the Yuan Zheng A2 robot has transformed into a “cultural ambassador,” taking on the important tasks of providing commentary on the large screen and creating calligraphy.

Folding clothes and brewing coffee are nothing new; some robots even take pulses on the spot. Yushu Technology’s robot boxing demonstration area offers a refreshingly novel experience.

While other robots were still demonstrating general-purpose capabilities, Hexagon chose to specialize in a specific vertical field.

This globally debuting humanoid robot specializes in industrial quality inspection. Equipped with a Leica AS1 blue-light scanning probe, it performs high-precision automated inspection and operational tasks in industrial settings.

The Automotive and Smart Mobility exhibition area is also worth noting.

A large number of automotive manufacturers and parts suppliers, including 12 globally renowned foreign automakers such as Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, BMW, and Porsche, have gathered here.

Tesla’s self-driving taxi, the Cybercap, and Porsche’s new 911 Turbo S made their Asian debuts.

Webasto, one of the world’s top 100 automotive parts suppliers, is showcasing the global debut of its extra-large dual-opening panoramic sunroof system, a folding roof featuring an all-fabric design, and a rooftop cinema system that delivers an immersive entertainment experience.

Across the various exhibition halls, we also observed that a number of foreign companies, including Fonterra, clearly conveyed their confidence in continuing to expand their presence in the Chinese market.

These signals are worth every investment promoter’s careful attention and keen observation.

03 On-Site at the CIIE: Seizing Opportunities

On the first day of the CIIE, the halls were bustling with visitors. This event has long since evolved from merely a platform for corporate exhibitions into a vital window for global enterprises to understand and invest in China.

Popular exhibition areas such as medical devices and artificial intelligence were packed with investment promotion teams from Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta, and other regions, engaging in discussions and networking with companies.

One investment promoter candidly remarked, “Our industrial park has a weakness in the medical device sector, so we must take the initiative to learn, engage in in-depth exchanges, and grasp industry trends.”

They seized every opportunity for dialogue; from small tables beside exhibition booths to in front of product display cases, every corner served as a “mobile meeting room” for discussing cooperation.

The food and agricultural products exhibition area also holds investment leads; Charoen Pokphand Group’s exhibits cover the entire supply chain from farm to table.

This year, there was a noticeable increase in exhibitors from other developing and less developed countries, with specialty products such as cashmere and wood carvings, as well as unique projects like agricultural processing equipment, making their debut.

This also points the way forward for investment promotion efforts across regions: by leveraging local resources and industrial foundations to seek differentiated cooperation in areas such as agricultural deep processing and specialty manufacturing, these initiatives can similarly become highlights of investment promotion work.

The CIIE also helps investment promoters gain insights into industry trends and seize future investment opportunities.

The themes of the Hongqiao Forum and its accompanying conferences are highly focused, with new developments in cutting-edge fields such as “Artificial Intelligence Industry Development,” “ESG and Sustainable Development,” and “Low-Altitude Economy” being unveiled.

For investment promotion teams, while “attracting projects” is the foundation, it is even more crucial to use the expo to gauge industry trends. For example, drone logistics support within the low-altitude economy—such “areas with potential”—may become a key focus for investment promotion in regions with relevant industrial foundations.

The bustling opening day of the CIIE is just the beginning; the real “highlights” are yet to come.

Over the next few days, more than 80 supporting events—including trade negotiations and investment promotion sessions—will be held.

Many regions will also hold investment promotion seminars, with intensive, in-depth matchmaking and negotiations set to unfold. Investment promotion teams from across the country are leveraging the bridge built by the CIIE to seize these opportunities.

"Investing in China means investing in the future." An increasing number of multinational corporations are leveraging the CIIE to establish key links in their innovation chains in China,

not only helping developing countries integrate into the global value chain but also ensuring that the fruits of China’s opening-up benefit the world.

This “report card,” soon to be unveiled, is highly anticipated.