How to get well-prepared for the participation in the China International Import Expo (CIIE)?
#China #Global Enterprises in China #Industry and Exhibition #CIIE
China International Import Expo (CIIE) is perhaps the most important exhibition in China for the global enterprises, providing them with a high-standard platform to observe China’s industry needs and a chance to be on site before making investment decisions relating to China market.
CIIE is held annually on 5-10 November with the same motto “New Era, Shared Future”. The hosts of CIIE are Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (MOFCOM) and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. The initiatives led by China’s Central Government usually get the highest attention and will be quickly and strictly implemented to almost perfection. CIIE was known as one of the center pieces of the Belt and Road Initiative championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Since its debut in November 2018, President Xi always gave the opening speech in person to showcase his firm support to strengthen the economic cooperation and trade with China’s partners.
The participants include government officials, business delegates, exhibitors and professional purchasers. The huge Chinese market potential is the main reason to attract those participants, although after the strict Covid-control period and with the priority of politics over economics, Chinese economy is currently under great stress.
I. What will take place during CIIE:
The below two screenshots provide clear illustrations of the exhibition areas and the venue set-up.
There are seven themed exhibitions:
- Food and Agricultural Products
- Automobile
- Intelligent Industry & Information Technology
- Consumer Goods
- Medical Equipment & Healthcare Products
- Trade in Services
- Innovation Incubation Special Section
Pictures by CIIE
The first six themes are regular ones with the last innovation and incubation special section just added in this year, reflecting Chinese government’s intention to attract the global innovative enterprises and incubation parks to participate, to further strengthen China’s leading position in the innovative technology, given the ongoing and the potential technology sanctions, especially by the United States.
Hongqiao International Economic Forum:
An important part of CIIE, offers insights into China’s macroeconomy. According to CIIE’s release, this year’s forum discussions will focus on topics such as industrial development and sustainable urban construction, sustainable trade under climate change, artificial intelligence, new energy storage, and new energy vehicles. In the past six years, over 800 guest speakers were hosted by the forum.
Country Exhibition:
According to CIIE statistics, as of July, more than 50 countries and international organizations have confirmed their participation in the Country Exhibition of the 7th CIIE.
Besides the themed exhibitions there are also supporting activities such as match-making meetings, seminars and product releases during the expo. In the last six exhibitions nearly 2,600 institutions participated people-to-people cultural exchange events including cultural activities and public performances.
II. Why participating CIIE is so important for global enterprises
Glimpsing through the exhibitor list announced by the 7th CIIE in July, almost all the important industry players are there. Take automobile exhibitors as an example, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, all the big German brands are in the list, as well as Webasto, the auto parts supplier (since I am based in Munich, I paid particular attention to the German enterprises, also because there are more European exhibitors due to the tension between China and the US).
Readers might ask: why foreign companies attend both industry-specific events and CIIE? Still take the auto industry as an example: the Auto Show which takes place consecutively in Shanghai and Beijing is the world’s largest auto show, which offers eye-opening experience to preview the new models and get to know the latest technology. The subcategories of the 7th CIIE’S auto section include finished vehicles, smart mobility & new energy, automobile supporting products and parts/maintenance supplies, which certainly don’t differentiate much from the annual Auto Show, but of smaller scale. So why those top brands need to exhibit twice?
Economic considerations certainly perform a big role: The exhibition is a platform for overseas enterprise to showcase the goods, technology and services with the aim to find new cooperation and get new contracts. But for leading international enterprises, this platform is less effective. Their participation is more a government affairs initiative, efforts to showcase their China commitment, given the political importance attached to CIIE.
III. Recommendations on how to be well-prepared
To make the best return out of the efforts that the global companies invested in the exhibition, the below recommendations might serve as a good start to plan their participation during CIIE.
Plan the exchange programs with government officials and designate the right-level spokespersons
Very well-planned government affairs programs to garner attention from the right authorities can expedite market access. Take the pharmaceutical industry as an example: CIIE’s inaugural newsletter in July shared a case study that Siemens Healthineers’ Naeotom Alpha, the world’s first photon-counting CT scanner, became commercially available in China two years after its debut at the 4th CIIE.
For pharmaceutical companies, CIIE is a good platform to meet the Chinese healthcare authorities, for example China’s National Medical Products Administration. Depending on the topics that the Western companies want to put forward, the meeting format can be closed-door meetings or invite the representatives of the supervisory government agency to the exhibition booth when it comes to a new product launch, or participating in the forum discussions etc. The exhibitors can work with the CIIE organizers to get the guest list and determine the appropriate format and level of the engagement. Head of Government Affairs, Head of China, or spokespersons from the headquarters can be tasked to take the lead depending on the level of the government stakeholders (e.g. working-level officials, Head of division, or Minister level etc.).
Have a good external communication plan for and beyond CIIE
Given CIIE’s importance, Chinese state media including CCTV, People’s Daily and China Daily will send large reporting teams to cover the event. To optimize the senior executive visit and balance the tone (global executives don’t want to over-emphasize the China commitment risking outrage in their home country), communications department should work closely with the business functions to come up with a well-thought communication plan which should have well considered the below scenarios:
- Proactive media engagement plan
The companies can either set up media activities independently or work with the CIIE organizers. When talking to the national top-tier media titles, the global CEOs are the preferred spokespersons.
- Reactive media encounter plan
The communication team should have the general communication guideline and messaging document specific for CIIE ready and go through with the on-site executives to prepare for unplanned media encounters, to ensure the consistent messaging.
- Well-aligned speech script
Senior executives’ speeches during the forum or panel discussions are also part of the messaging and should be fact-checked by joint workforce formed by the communication department, corporate affairs team and business units.
Be prepared for more interactions on companies’ self-owned social media platforms
It is estimated that the social media engagement level will increase during CIIE participation, particularly in the companies’ self-owned Chinese social media platforms. Depending on the setting, followers and strangers can comment or send private messages to enquire about the CIIE activities and pose questions. It can happen that sometimes the company post they used to leave the comments are non-relevant to CIIE. The social media management team should be prepared for high workload and be informed about what happens at the company’s booth in an efficient manner.
Be crisis ready
Same as any large-scale events, even CIIE’s visitors are professional visitors classified into groups and trade missions, potential crisis might pop up all of the sudden. Exhibitors should have been trained in advance to handle various crisis scenarios. Most important of all, a senior in-venue crisis contact should be appointed and should have the authority to either make quick decisions on site according to the playbooks or have the resources to escalate or mobilize other teams immediately to prevent the issues from turning into crisis.
Note down the technical details – especially for those small/medium-sized enterprises who plan to organize the exhibits arrangement and booth setup themselves.
There are a few important deadlines to observe:
- September 15: submitting corporate information and exhibit information to be included in the online pre-exhibition and expo publications
- October 15: applying for staff certificate
Furthermore, CIIE organizers announced the upgrades to the forum information system. A mobile platform was developed with interactive features for audience engagement and appointment scheduling and has been launched for trial operations within the CIIE application. Given how digitalized the Chinese society is, the exhibitors need to get themselves familiar with the mobile platform once having received the information, in order not to miss important information such as registration, information retrieval, guest interactions and on-site guidance.
Are you participating or considering participating CIIE and need support? I am here to help and please kindly get in touch!
