On November 4^th, 2022, the opening ceremony of the 5^th China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the Hongqiao International Economic Forum were held in Shanghai. President Xi Jinping delivered a speech via video with the title: Working Together for a Bright Future of Openness and Prosperity at the opening ceremony of the 5^th CIIE.

In recent five years, SDIC has been deepening the implementation of the general requirements of President Xi Jinping on CIIE: “The CIIE, which will be held on an annual basis, will feature good performance, fruitful results and continued success”, as well as carrying out the deployment of the State Council on the import expo. SDIC has been giving special importance to and actively participated in the import expo so as to make its contribution to CIIE. SDIC Vice President Yang Xiaohui was appointed head of the purchasing team at the 5^th CIIE. On November 6^th, SDIC held the import matchmaking meeting and signing ceremony and the purchasing team signed with 20 cooperation partners procurement-intent agreements worth a total of US$1.048 billion, breaking the threshold of US$1 billion for the first time.

SDIC has strengthened coordination, drafted detailed plans and emphasized COVID-19 pandemic prevention work in order to do well related work for the 5^th CIIE. SDIC has also made thorough communications with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the CIIE Bureau and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, etc., organized its major purchasing subsidiary company SDIC Trade to register for participation, combined its advantages to tap the procurement intent, organized a matchmaking event and drafted detailed plans for onsite activities to continuously explore new business opportunities and strike record high import agreements.

In the end, the purchasing team signed procurement-intent agreements with 20 cooperation partners at the SDIC Import Matchmaking and Signing Ceremony. The imports cover the key sectors of grains, oil and oil seeds, minerals, cotton and foodstuffs, etc.. In recent five years, SDIC has signed procurement-intent agreements with a total of 56 cooperation partners and the accumulative value of imports hit US$4.514 billion, which has helped provide more high quality product supply to satisfy the upgrading needs from the domestic market.

Compared with the previous four CIIEs, SDIC has further optimized its import commodity varieties at the 5^th CIIE. Among the total, import-intent agreements of grains, mainly sorghum and barley, were worth US$528 million, accounting for 50.4% of the total, which is expected to further satisfy the growing domestic demand for fodder consumption and guarantee the effective supply of meat and eggs; the import value of oil and oil seeds was US$250 million, covering the varieties of oil commodities, palm oil and palm oil stearine, etc., accounting for 23.9% of the total, which is expected to ease the shortage in the domestic market. In the meantime, SDIC has for the first time added medical equipment to its procurement list at the 5^thCIIE, signing a US$30.45 million agreement with Elekta of Sweden to import its linear accelerator, introducing world advanced cutting-edge technology to the domestic medical treatment and heath market and offering a differentiated option for patients.

Fernando Lugris, Ambassador of Uruguay to China, said in his video speech that in recent years, bilateral trade between China and Uruguay has been keeping a continuous growth momentum and SDIC Group has been playing an important role in boosting trade of the two countries. As the two countries are about to celebrate the 35^th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, new opportunities will arise and there will be a very broad prospect for bilateral cooperation for Chinese companies, especially for SDIC Group that supports Uruguay, has trade cooperation with Uruguay, and has been making efforts to introduce quality products of Uruguay to China. He expressed his hope that more Uruguay quality products will be exported to China through SDIC Group, such as wool, meat, timber, dairy products and red wine, etc., and that SDIC Group will continue to join hands with Uruguay to promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation in the future.

Liu Jiaqiang, President of China Wool Textile Association, said in his video speech that SDIC Group is implementing the philosophy of a global community of a shared future, promoting cooperation between Chinese and foreign wool textile industries and has made active contribution to global wool textile industrial chain in the sector of wool textile trade and investment. China Wool Textile Association will join hands with SDIC Group to adhere to reform and opening and make fresh contributions to the sustainable and high quality development of the world wool textile industry. He expressed his hope that SDIC Group take the advantage of the CIIE platform to promote the high quality development of China’s import trade and make joint efforts to promote the upgrading of domestic consumption and help the people to realize their vision for a better life.

Both old friends and new friends of SDIC benefit from the CIIE platform and in the five years, a number of agreements have seen their value to grow year by year. Among all the import items, the value of oil commodities imported by SDIC procurement team has steadily increased from US$58 million at the beginning to US$120 million in 2022, which has brought steady supply to the domestic daily use chemical market. The continuous expansion of the scale of cooperation is attributed not only to the huge potential of the Chinese market, but also to the 100% implementation rate of the signed contracts. A leading executive of an Indonesian oil chemical plant said: “Despite the serious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, SDIC Trade of the SDIC Group continues to import our oil commodities, which has guaranteed our sales and revenue.”

In addition to sorghum and barley, SDIC Group encourages SDIC Trade to continue to diversify the sources, channels and varieties of grain imports, make preparations to expand its grain import to the main grain production areas in the United States, Canada, Vietnam and Thailand, etc., steadily expand the sales coverage of its imported grains used for fodder and liquor production in the East China region and along the Yangtze River valley and has succeeded in increasing the sales volume year by year. Among them, the import volumes of rice bran and cassava starch rank No. 1 in the country while the imports of barley and sorghum are among the top in the country, having made active contributions to food security and stability of the industrial supply chain. A leading executive of the Muyuan Foods Co., Ltd said: “The professional supply chain operation ability of SDIC Trade under the SDIC Group helps secure the supply of fodder for livestock and poultry and plays an active role in steady supply of live pigs (to the market).”

SDIC Group will take the signing of import-intent agreements as a new starting point to comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, focus on the key areas related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, make good use of both the international and domestic markets and resources, rely on the advantages of the super-large domestic market, tap the full potential of domestic demand, continuously improve its global resource integration capability and spare no efforts in securing the smooth operation, safety and stability of the industrial supply chain.

SDIC Trade Chairman Wu Shiyong, Cao Derong, President of the China Chamber of Commerce of I/E of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products, and Jiang Junyang, Deputy Director of the Beijing Office of the U.S. Grain Council, attended the signing ceremony.