By the Huangpu River, at Boston Scientific’s Lingang factory, the catheters compatible with the new-generation AVVIGO+ intravascular ultrasound system, which made its debut at the 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE), rolled off the production line ahead of last year’s CIIE. From exhibition products to commercial goods and further to industrial investment, the CIIE, a vital "window", vividly demonstrates the depth and vitality of Shanghai’s high-standard opening-up.
One hundred kilometers to the west, at the Xiangfu Laboratory in Jiashan, Zhejiang, researcher Liu Bo clicks the mouse and books specialized equipment from Shanghai Jiao Tong University within minutes. The cross-Yangtze River Delta instrument-sharing network links the whole innovation and collaboration chain, integrating scattered innovation resources into a cohesive force.
This year marks the launch of the 15th Five-Year Plan. As a metropolis forged through reform and opening-up, Shanghai embraces both domestic and international markets as well as domestic and global resources with an even broader vision. It advances two-pronged efforts: externally promoting "bringing in" and "going global", and internally boosting radiating influence and in-depth regional integration. The city acts as a trailblazer and exemplary leader in fostering the new development paradigm.
The CIIE Builds a Bridge, Opening Wider Doors to the World
Launched in 2018, the China International Import Expo has been held annually, sowing a seed of openness eight years ago. The expo has yielded remarkable achievements, with the seed growing into a towering tree.
Statistics tell a compelling success story. Wu Zhengping, Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the China International Import Expo Bureau, stated that as the world’s first national-level import-themed expo, over the past eight sessions, the CIIE has drawn participants from more than 180 countries, regions and international organizations, alongside over 4,500 overseas institutions. It has showcased a cumulative total of over 3,400 debut new products, technologies and services across 27 specialized exhibition zones covering artificial intelligence, new materials and more, continuously generating momentum for open cooperation and industrial empowerment.
Behind these figures lie countless vivid CIIE success stories, proving Shanghai an ideal testing ground for high-level opening-up. Nutricia, a regular exhibitor at all eight expos, has witnessed firsthand how exhibition exhibits turn into marketable goods. Imported fresh milk originally boasted a shelf life of merely 15 days. Thanks to trade facilitation policies rolled out for the CIIE, Nutricia’s fresh milk can travel from New Zealand to dining tables across Shanghai in just 72 hours. At the 8th CIIE, Nutricia globally launched its 4.0 Grass-Fed Omega-3 Pure Milk. The new product hit major domestic e-commerce platforms and offline supermarkets nationwide on June 12 this year. Its special launch livestream hosted by Li Jiaqi accumulated over 40 million total views, with a peak online audience of 100,000. "The CIIE enables premium global products to efficiently enter the Chinese market and consistently meet Chinese consumers’ aspirations for a better life," said Yan Zhijun, Marketing Director of Nutricia.
Beyond transforming exhibitors into commodity sellers, the CIIE has catalyzed a major leap: exhibitors turning into investors, and imported goods evolving into domestically manufactured products that are eventually exported. Boston Scientific premiered its Polaris intravascular ultrasound system at the 2nd CIIE. Leveraging Shanghai’s pilot Medical Device Registrant System, the product obtained its registration certificate in 2022, completing a three-stage transformation from exhibition sample to registered medical device to localized production. Wu Xiulan, Vice President of Global Supply Chain China at Boston Scientific, noted that the company’s Lingang factory was completed in October 2024, serving as its first manufacturing base in China. In March this year, the first domestically produced medical device manufactured at the facility received official approval, marking a milestone shift from technology introduction to independent intelligent manufacturing at the local production line.
As the permanent host city of the CIIE, Shanghai functions not only as a window looking out to the world but also as a bridge connecting China with the rest of the globe. Through a series of pioneering "Shanghai solutions", the city has translated the 6+365-day spillover effect of the expo into tangible progress in urban development, embodying its unwavering mission to advance high-standard opening-up.
The Yangtze River Delta Connects Innovation Chains, Deepening Coordinated Collaboration
If the CIIE is the window through which Shanghai opens itself to the world, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta serves as its internal artery for radiating growth nationwide.
Last December, the scope of Shanghai’s International Science and Technology Innovation Center expanded to cover the entire Yangtze River Delta, ushering its development into a new phase from city-specific breakthroughs to integrated regional collaboration. As of May this year, the three provinces and one municipality of the Yangtze River Delta have jointly launched a total of 105 collaborative research projects spanning core sectors including integrated circuits, artificial intelligence and biomedicine, creating a multiplier effect in scientific and technological innovation across the region.
A few months ago, Liu Bo, project lead for semiconductor testing at Xiangfu Laboratory in Jiashan, Zhejiang, and his team nearly stalled their research on rapid pathogen detection equipment due to unavailable thermal testing facilities. Previously, they would have outsourced testing to third-party labs at high cost and long waiting times. Today, Liu logs onto the large-scale instrument sharing platform of Shanghai Center for Translational Medicine and reserves professional equipment from Shanghai Jiao Tong University within minutes. Operating equipment based in Shanghai while researchers work in Jiashan, a cross-regional innovation and commercialization collaboration network covering the entire Yangtze River Delta has been fully established. Institutional innovation has broken geographical barriers: the region now shares 68,800 large scientific instruments, with science and technology innovation vouchers supporting approximately 820 million yuan in research services.
Striving to be a trailblazer in scientific and technological innovation, Shanghai leverages its leading role as a national innovation hub. It links manufacturing bases in Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, the digital industrial belt in Zhejiang and innovation hubs in Anhui, forming a development landscape where each region capitalizes on its strengths for complementary growth. The region collaborates openly to build world-class industrial clusters.
Over the past eight months, Shanghai Silang Technology supplied domestic computing hardware clusters while Hefei Quanxin Intelligent Manufacturing delivered breakthrough industrial software solutions. Engineers from both sides conducted intensive joint research on algorithm verification and performance acceleration, identifying an optimal operational pathway. Simulation tasks that once required hundreds of servers running in parallel for days can now see efficiency boosted dozens of times. Zha Hao, Chairman and CEO of Silang Technology, commented: "The Yangtze River Delta boasts China’s most concentrated integrated circuit industry, the most complete industrial chain and the largest pool of talent. It is the easiest place to find industrial chain partners for the domestic independent tech ecosystem." Ni Jie, Chairman and General Manager of Quanxin Intelligent Manufacturing, added that amid global uncertainties, only collaborative innovation across the industrial chain can overcome core technology bottlenecks.
By combining individual strengths into unified collective strength, Yangtze River Delta integration is rapidly unlocking the synergy of "1+1+1+1 > 4". Official data shows the region’s total economic output hit 34.66 trillion yuan last year, with the number of trillion-yuan GDP cities rising to 10. In the first five months of this year, the Yangtze River Delta recorded total import and export volume of 7.82 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.2% — an all-time high for the period, accounting for 37.8% of China’s national total foreign trade volume.
Mutual Empowerment and Shared Success: Shanghai Fulfills Its Responsibilities Steadfastly
External opening-up and internal regional integration are never separate endeavors. Exhibition products showcased at the CIIE reach nationwide markets via the Yangtze River Delta’s industrial chain collaboration; innovative achievements from the delta gain global exposure through Shanghai’s open platforms. The two dimensions reinforce and advance each other, forming an integral part of Shanghai’s efforts to build the new development paradigm.
For external opening-up, Shanghai spearheads high-standard opening-up driven by institutional reforms. It pioneered the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Supporting and Hosting the China International Import Expo nationwide, codifying proven practices from the expo — such as streamlined entry-exit procedures, intellectual property protection and the conversion of exhibition goods into commercial inventory — into binding legislation. The city has shifted its opening-up model from facilitating cross-border factor flows to deeper institutional opening-up covering rules, regulations, management systems and standards.
For internal regional opening-up, Shanghai fully exerts its radiating influence as a core leading city. The 2026 Yangtze River Delta Main Leaders’ Symposium explicitly proposed advancing high-level coordinated opening-up, exploring the orderly rollout of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone policies to other free trade zones across the delta. The shift from "Shanghai’s opening-up" to "joint opening-up of the entire Yangtze River Delta" continuously deepens internal regional integration.
The CIIE stands as the most vivid embodiment of the integration of internal and external opening-up. During the 8th CIIE, IFBH Group, a first-time exhibitor, announced its settlement in Hongqiao International Central Business District on the opening day, establishing its China headquarters for the IF brand. "After setting up our Shanghai office, we will optimize consumer engagement and advance localized R&D of new products through this layout," said Pongsakorn Pongsak, CEO of IFBH Group. Over the past six months, IFBH has accelerated its localization strategy by assembling elite teams to align its offerings with Chinese consumer demands. It has also launched localized production for selected new products, achieving technological integration and win-win value creation with domestic manufacturers — a testament to its long-term commitment to the Chinese market.
Standing at the new starting point of the inaugural year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Shanghai takes a more proactive stance to engage both international and domestic markets, continuously refining internal and external opening-up. It embraces the world through the CIIE as a window and cultivates the vast domestic market relying on the Yangtze River Delta as its hinterland, shouldering its mission and surging forward to lead progress in the new development paradigm.
Opening-up knows no bounds. Shanghai marches forward without cease.
Source: China International Import Expo · Wenhui Daily
