The fair has almost doubled its exhibition area and the number of booths since the last session in October last year to 310,000 square metres and 15,676 booths.

The expansion would alleviate domestic companies' competition for a place in the fair and help cut down on those who scalp booth spaces for extraordinarily high prices, said Zhou Keren, vice-minister of foreign trade and economic co-operation.

He said the organizing committee maintains a strict standard for admitting exhibitors into the fair to ensure the quality of exhibits but has done legitimate companies a much welcomed favour by assuring them of getting exhibition space.

The fair, China's oldest and largest, is held in April and October every year going all the way back to 1957.

Each session of the fair is divided into 47 exhibition groups and lasts 12 days.

But the 91st session has been reorganized into two shows so as to accommodate more exhibitors. The first runs from April 15 to 20 and the second from April 25 to 30.

Hu Chusheng, secretary-general of the fair, said the fair is saving exhibitors money by charging only 70 per cent of the previous fee for each booth because of the shorter exhibition time.

(China Daily April 15, 2002)