This photo taken on Nov. 26, 2023 shows the booth of Chinese automaker Geely at the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing, capital of China. [Photo/Xinhua]

China International Supply Chain Expo (CISIE) opened Tuesday in Beijing, the first of its kind in the world devoted to promoting industrial and supply chain collaboration.

The expo is the "world's first national exhibition themed on supply chain" and a new open platform built by China for the global business community to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the sector, said Ren Hongbin, president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) when delivering a speech at the opening ceremony.

More than 1,100 representatives from governmental departments, business communities and international organizations attended the event, including domestic and foreign firms with their business scopes ranging from smart cars, green agriculture, clean energy, digital technology to health and lifestyle sectors.

"Today's event is groundbreaking because of the innovative way in which it brings together companies across the supply chain and ensures that participants from the whole chain -- upstream, midstream and downstream work together," said Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in a video speech.

Beijing Initiative

During the opening ceremony, industrial and commercial representatives launched the Beijing Initiative for the Connectivity of Industrial and Supply Chains, calling for maintaining the stability and smooth flows of global industrial and supply chains.

Maintaining the resilience and stability of global industrial and supply chains is an important guarantee for the promotion of global economic development, and serves the common interests of people around the world, the initiative said.

It called for market principles to be upheld, and for concrete actions to be taken to deepen international cooperation on industrial and supply chains.

The initiative also urged the world to work together to advance the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and to reduce trade and investment barriers.

"We see the CISCE platform facilitates closer collaboration, fostering resilience and securing supply chains," said Stefan Hartung, chairman of Bosch's board of management, noting that the Chinese market plays a "crucial" role in the global industrial and supply chain.

Action matters

A flagship report titled the Global Supply Chain Promotion Report was released on Tuesday, highlighting China's role in promoting the soundness of global supply chains as the country can provide opportunities for global supply chain cooperation due to its super-large-scale market, complete industry categories, opening-up policies and innovation competence.

The report covering five supply chains namely smart automobiles, smart cellphones, photovoltaic power, medicines and green wheat was written by the CCPIT Research Institute based on a research of 526 domestic and overseas enterprises and interviews of more than 100 experts, according to Chen Jian'an, vice president of CCPIT.

As a major manufacturing powerhouse, China is the only country on earth that has all the industrial categories listed in the UN industrial classification. In 2022, the total added-value of China's manufacturing sector accounted for 27.7 percent of domestic GDP, said the report.

Given that the world economy is struggling to recover and facing the headwind of deglobalization and the challenge of supply chain restructuring, it is necessary for countries to work together to promote technological innovation, strengthen openness and cooperation, deepen the construction of relevant infrastructure, and promote the inclusive and shared development of the global supply chain, said the report.

With the theme of "Connecting the World for a Shared Future", the event hosted by the CCPIT with the support of the UNCTAD, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and three other international organizations, will last till Dec. 2.

"We hope that people from all walks of life at home and abroad will make full use of the expo as a platform to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and achieve fruitful results," Ren said.