1. Provides new business opportunities for tapping the international market. In an endeavor to promote overseas business for domestic enterprises, a Special and Competitive Products Trade Cooperation Area has been set up to demonstrate famous local products in front of more than 6000 famous enterprise purchasers and 15,000-odd professional buyers from China and abroad. These include household appliances and electronics, home supplies, gifts & accessories, garment, shoes & hats, food and drinks. Meanwhile, a Tourism & Cultural Cooperation Display Area has been designed, which focuses on showcasing distinctive tourism products, cultural products, folk customs, travelling routes and intangible cultural heritages from Guangdong and countries or regions along the Maritime Silk Road.

2. Spares no effort in promoting the cross border e-commerce platforms. In order to build cross border e-commerce platforms for the Maritime Silk Road, major cross border e-business platforms such as Amazon, Jingdong Mall, Tmall, Yihaodian, have been approached so that commodities from the Maritime Silk Road countries and regions can be displayed via these online networks. Thus, retails can be achieved through on-site exhibition and O2O mode. Benchmarking enterprises from the 32 cross border e-business platforms including Amazon and Jingdong Mall have accepted the exhibition invitation. Trend and Opportunity for Maritime Silk Road Cross Border E-commerce and other events have also been scheduled for the expo.

3. Boosts the level of exhibition to a new height. A total of 2536 booths had been applied by various enterprises, which exceeds 26.8 percent of the expectation. So far, enterprises and trade associations from 25 countries (83% out of all countries) situated along the Maritime Silk Road have registered for the exhibition and applied for 1193 booths, including Malaysia, Thailand, the UAE, India, South Korea, Cambodia, Burma, Singapore, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. This includes Fortune 500 companies and well-known multinationals, such as the Korea-based Samsung, LG, Indonesia-based XS International, Thailand-based CP Group, ASEAN TV, Singapore-based Wilmar International (Yihai Kerry). What’s more, 14 enterprises from countries located outside these regions also participated with great enthusiasm. Of all countries or regions that have signed up for the exhibition, more than half of them has applied to set up a national pavilion. Their representative enterprises will have a specially-constructed stand for the exhibition.

4. Offers a new place for authoritative discussions and seminars. International forum, experts consultation session and other exchange activities will be organized throughout the expo. These activities will see the participation of related leaders from various Ministries, Guangdong province, the advisory office to the State Council, as well as professors with the Italy-based Università “Cà Foscari” di VENEZIA and top management of the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. Furthermore, numerous business and academic elites will attend the expo and give a keynote speech on trade, economic, cultural and tourism cooperation among countries or regions of the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. They are expected to offer advices and suggestions in respect of economic transformation and upgrading in Guangdong, and have dialogues on topics of win-win cooperation among regions and of how should Guangdong build the model of cooperation with countries and regions along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in the new historical period.