China’s Canton Fair to return with on-site exhibitions, but exporters bemoan the lack of overseas buyers

Name: Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert
Uploaded: 2021-07-22T11:30:16.000Z
Duration: 4 min 55 s
Description: Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert

The biannual Canton Fair will allow exhibitors to return in person after holding the past three events online because of the coronavirus pandemic

But many private and small manufacturing exporters say they will not take part unless borders reopen to allow a sizeable number of international buyers

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The biannual Canton Fair will return with on-site exhibitions in October after holding the three previous events online. Photo: Xinhua

He Huifengin Guangdong

Published: 7:30pm, 22 Jul 2021Updated: 2:59pm, 23 Jul 2021

The Canton Fair will allow exhibitors to return in person in October, with a limited number of exporters and foreign buyers in China allowed to attend the trade exhibition after it was shifted online last year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the commerce ministry has said.

The biannual trade event, which has been held since 1957, is the largest of its kind in China, but interest among the nation’s export manufacturers has been waning over the past year amid pandemic-related travel disruptions.

About 26,000 exhibitors livestreamed their displays at the three virtual fairs in April, and June and October last year.

The ministry said on Wednesday that resident representatives of foreign institutions and foreign companies in China, as well as domestic exporters, would be invited to attend the fair between October 15 and November 3, where there would be about 60,000 exhibition booths.

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The statement did not say if overseas buyers could apply to participate or if there was a chance for traders from neighbouring Hong Kong to attend.

Provincial authorities in Guangdong have not yet made plans for Hong Kong residents to restart quarantine-free travel across the border, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told the city’s lawmakers in mid-July.