Shanghai upgrades services for a successful CIIE

By Tian Hong, Xie Weiqun, People’s Daily

Shanghai is going all out to hold another successful China International Import Expo (CIIE), from ensuring solid efforts in pandemic prevention and control, and constantly refining its service capabilities.

On the morning of Oct. 21, the first batch of cold-chain food exhibits for the fourth CIIE arrived at a cold-chain food storage warehouse in Zhuqiao township, Pudong New Area, Shanghai.

After opening the cargo area of the truck that carried the exhibits, sanitary inspectors in protective suits measured the temperature of the cargo area with infrared thermometers, and then the exhibits were transferred on a designated convey belt for disinfection.

According to Xu Liang, vice general manager of Shanghai Huachen Youan Supply Chain Co., ltd., the warehouse covers a total area of 30,000 square meters and boasts a designed capacity of 12,000 metric tons. It is completely separated from the business areas of cold-chain enterprises. Porters, tally clerks, forklift drivers and managers have already started working at the warehouse, and are under closed-off management for better COVID-19 control, Xu said.

Shanghai has designated 37 medical facilities that offer 24-hour green channels of nucleic acid tests for those with CIIE certificates. Besides, 300 medical workers are working at a large temporary site for nucleic acid tests near the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), a main venue for the fourth CIIE, and the test results are uploaded to a cloud system soon after they are generated.

Shanghai has implemented full-chain, closed-loop, and traceable management, and all residents have been vaccinated and gone through COVID-19 screening, said Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, adding that the whole city has been disinfected and all accesses to it are approved upon strict screening measures. The city is working earnestly to ensure solid pandemic prevention and control, so as to make the fourth CIIE a success, Wu noted.

On the morning of Oct. 29, the first China-Europe freight train carrying exhibits for the fourth CIIE arrived at the Minhang Railway Station of Shanghai from Germany’s Hamburg. Prior to the train’s arrival, a 15-member customs team had already established a green channel for the customs clearance of these exhibits at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), which is not far from the Minhang Railway Station.

These new models and facilitation measures have further upgraded the customs clearance of CIIE exhibits. By optimizing information input and a venue inspection application, Shanghai Customs updated its big data management platform for cross-border trade, which has made its monitoring work more digital, intelligent and facilitated.

Besides, Shanghai has employed the achievements of urban digital transformation in the fourth CIIE, so as to ensure effective services with digital governance and better facilitate the participators with digital application scenarios.

At present, health information of the participators in the fourth CIIE, including their health codes, nucleic acid test results, and vaccination conditions, is being uploaded times a day by the municipal big data center of Shanghai, and such information acts as a determinant for the participators’ access permissions. When they go through check points at the venues of the event, their temperature, security check, and verification information will be automatically recorded.

Apart from that, a special service is now available on the public service platform of Shanghai, through which the participators and visitors can inquire about everything about the event, from exhibitors to venues, and from activities to online exhibitions.

The fourth CIIE will fully support the use of digital yuan at its venues, so as to offer a one-stop consumption experience of the digital currency. To build a multi-dimensional financial support system, the Export-Import Bank of China has specifically tailored a service plan for the fourth CIIE that offers over 30 financial products.

Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub, as a permanent trading and exhibition platform of the CIIE, introduced another 17 country pavilions last month. Over 800 exhibits of the fourth CIIE were put on the shelf in advance. So far, the platform has attracted 180 merchants from 76 countries and regions, and established 63 country pavilions.