Shen Weihua, deputy-director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, presides over the 2020 online launching ceremony of the 30th ECF. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The East China Fair (ECF), the largest annual regional trade fair in China, launched its 30th session at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center on July 13.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year's event, which will last until July 17 and is jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Commission of Commerce and other provincial and city-level commercial bureaus, is innovatively using the internet's great strength to inject continuous impetus into foreign enterprises in China and further boost their confidence in trade and investment. 

The five-day event is gathering government officials, heads of trading groups, representatives from business associations, co-organizers and partners including  eBay and Google, exhibitors and purchasers and has welcomed e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and iBailian.

Xu Kunlin, vice-mayor of Shanghai, addressed the opening ceremony. He said that this year marks the first time the ECF has held its exhibitions online, which will definitely create a series of unprecedented challenges; it will also be a challenge to hold an exhibition during the epidemic.

"It is necessary to face the new challenges of international trade, make efforts to stabilize the basics of foreign trade and foreign investment, and strive to hold a 'particularly wonderful' online fair so as to jointly write a new chapter in the history of the development of the ECF, " said Xu.

The theme of the 2020 ECF will be to provide online products display, supply and demand matching, online searches and matchmaking, and online signing and customer services.

This year's fair provides 24-hour foreign trade platforms with five professional sub-exhibitions for clothing and garment accessories, home textiles and fabrics, household products, decoration and gifts and modern-lifestyle thematic products.

In response to the current changing international trade situation, this year's ECF also set up three new special online platforms for export-oriented commodities which are sold at home now, supplies for epidemic prevention and control and cross-border e-commerce, opening up markets at home and abroad for foreign trade enterprises.

A total of 3,520 exhibitors have been approved by the online fair, 71,759 products have been uploaded to the official website, and 21,017 purchasers have completed online registration.

Additionally, the fair will organize four trade business matchmaking sessions where exhibitors and purchasers will make appointments for matchmaking and one-to-one video negotiation will be held.

Eastbest & Lansheng Group Shanghai International Trade Promotion Co Ltd received the award as ECF's most excellent organizer. Representatives of purchasers who have participated in the fair more than nine times were awarded as best ECF's purchasers and representatives of exhibitors who are veterans of more than 15 sessions were celebrated as honored ECF exhibitors.

The East China Fair is the largest regional trade fair organized in China. It features traders from across the world and also has the highest turnover. It is held annually in March in Shanghai, and is supported by the Ministry of Commerce and co-organized by the commercial departments of nine provinces and cities including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Nanjing and Ningbo.

Exhibitors who have participated in over 15 ECF sessions receive awards as ECF's honored exhibitors. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]