China import expo leverages AI models, big data analysis to optimize service for exhibitors, visitors

The seventh China International Import Expo (CIIE) 2024, scheduled for Nov 5 to 10 in Shanghai, will leverage technologies including AI models and big data analysis to optimize experience at service and management ends for all participants, said a leading municipal official on Wednesday.

Hua Yuan, vice mayor of Shanghai, told a press conference in Beijing that the upcoming CIIE has developed a specialized online application and geared up for all-process real-time monitoring to provide experience improvement services for exhibitors and visitors.

"This year, we have focused on data empowerment, information integration, and the creation of a people-oriented service experience for exhibitors and visitors to enhance agile and efficient management capabilities and a comprehensive level of intelligent service management mainly in two aspects," said Hua.

"First, we focused on the convenience of exhibitors and visitors to foster service optimization. For this year's CIIE, we focused on developing an application called 'Jinboshi', which is an AI digital service butler. We completed high-precision modeling of the entire exhibition hall, achieved seamless switching of navigation inside and outside the hall and route planning across floors. We also focused on the different needs before, during and after the exhibition, and created an exclusive service package for exhibitors and visitors in the application, which will provide services in catering and accommodation, transportation, certificate inquiry, and supply and demand docking. At the same time, we integrated instant messaging and multilingual capabilities to provide communication channels for face-to-face consultation services and improve consultation efficiency," he continued.

"Moreover, we focused on the orderly operation of the exhibition to achieve management optimization. In the exhibition hall, we use spatial computing perception equipment to achieve real-time monitoring of the flow of people and abnormal crowd gathering in the hall. In the CIIE comprehensive management platform, we have access to 17 categories of real-time dynamic heterogeneous data such as weather, engineering, fire protection, greening, and transportation, allowing us to realize intelligent analysis of 10 major application scenarios such as emergency, transportation, and meteorology, and therefore achieving same-screen synchronization of management and command inside and outside the exhibition hall," he said.

At present, more than 70 countries and international organizations have confirmed their participation in the seventh CIIE, and the event will see Norway, Slovakia, Benin, Burundi, Madagascar and UNICEF participating in the Country Exhibition for the first time.

China import expo leverages AI models, big data analysis to optimize service for exhibitors, visitors

China's expanding ties with the Global South have pushed trade growth far beyond the global average despite the tariff pressure from the U.S., according to experts.

"Whilst the Trump tariffs ultimately led to a significant drop-off in Chinese exports to the United States and vice versa, the trading relationships across much of the rest of the world continue to grow, and China's trading relationships across the Belt and Road Initiative countries, as well as with the Global South, more broadly speaking, has grown at rates far greater than global trade growth as a whole. And we see that evidenced by the latest data. When we break that down, we see that has been underpinned by the developments in high-technology products in particular, whether it's EVs, whether it's even in semiconductors, as well as photovoltaic panels, etc.," said Dr. Warwick Powell, an adjunct professor at the Queensland University of Technology, in a TV interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Thursday.

"And you've got to look at the places where the growth is taking place. Africa, I think, is a very interesting case in point, because the kinds of things that China has been exporting and expanding in terms of its exports are all about African economic development -- its machinery, its energy systems, its technology, and this really goes to delivering on China's broader strategic ambition as an emerging great power to be an enabling great power, supporting the development of its partners around the world," he added.

Qian Jun, executive dean of International School of Finance at Fudan University, attributed the trade growth to Chinese firms' endeavor to tap into key regions like ASEAN, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

"The main increase of export comes from, as we have discussed, these new areas: The ASEAN economy -- southeast Asia remains the most important trading partner -- and also Latin America, the Middle East, and these [other such] new regions. So, the exporters of the Chinese companies are also very good at adjusting their destinies, their strategies, how to market their goods and services, so that the reliance on the U.S., for example, has gone down a lot," Qian said.

China's trade momentum increasingly powered by Global South: experts