Canton Fair Unveils 50+ Innovations for 140th Edition
The 140th China Import and Export Fair — the Canton Fair — will open in Guangzhou on October 15 with more than 50 new measures designed to speed up service and improve matching between suppliers and buyers, as the world’s largest trade exhibition marks its 70th anniversary. The fair, a closely watched barometer of Chinese foreign trade, runs in three phases until November 4.
According to CCTV News, via China News Service, the organizer has embedded artificial intelligence and big data across the entire exhibition process, rolling out 22 smart application scenarios and 16 AI-specific tools for the first time.
A Smarter, Faster Fair
At the center of the overhaul is a navigation system that the organizer says is a national first for the exhibition industry. Using a fusion of “Bluetooth + BeiDou + 5G” positioning technology, it provides booth-level indoor guidance across all 45 halls — a 1.55 million square meter area covering more than 75,000 booths — with accuracy down to one meter.
The same report notes that exhibitors and buyers can exchange electronic business cards by scanning a code, have AI automatically generate negotiation summaries, and let the system archive customer information and flag high-intent orders. The upgraded Canton Fair app handles pre-fair, on-site and post-fair logistics in “one click.”
Badge processing has also been accelerated. The fair has set up 70 registration points and 628 counters at airports, high-speed rail stations, exhibition halls and designated hotels, allowing overseas buyers to obtain a badge within 30 seconds after passport verification.
Li Kexin of the China Foreign Trade Centre’s external liaison office said the upgrades were designed around the practical complaints most frequently raised by buyers at past sessions. “This session is the first to launch overseas buyer membership service, implementing a member points system with four levels,” Li said, according to People’s Daily. “We not only build the tools, but also accommodate different buyers’ usage habits, so that global buyers can invest more energy into business negotiations.”
Buyer Membership and a New Alliance
Two firsts stand out as a shift in how the fair manages its most important customers. The new overseas buyer membership program introduces a four-tier points system, which the organizer describes as a move from “traffic management” to “value operation” of buyers.
The fair has also established a Canton Fair Buyer Alliance, aimed at Fortune 500 companies, the global top-250 retailers and leading national enterprises. A Guangzhou Daily preview reported that 58 leading purchasing enterprises from 32 countries and regions have already joined, gaining priority access to services, events, resources and information.
That same report detailed a broader expansion in trade services: nine dedicated trade-service zones for the first time cover all 10 major categories of productive services, with 237 service institutions on hand — up about 10 percent — including more than 100 of international or national standing, up roughly 17 percent.
The fair is also testing a new commerce model. Under an “exhibition plus overseas livestreaming” format focused on markets in the Middle East and Africa, senior buyers will broadcast from the floor for three days during each phase — touring booths in the morning and hosting studio livestreams in the afternoon. More than 100 exhibitors had signed up as of the preview.
Getting Visitors There and Back
Supporting services extend well beyond the halls. Guangzhou will run dedicated Canton Fair metro timetables, and about 9,000 metro gates will accept international bank cards for tap-to-ride entry. More than 2,000 taxis and ride-hailing vehicles will be dispatched daily, and the fair will open its first autonomous driving bus demonstration line, connecting key hotels, metro stations and main access routes.
Guangzhou Customs has introduced 12 facilitation measures, including on-arrival inspection of imported exhibits, agricultural and food product export support, and optimized verification for departure tax refunds. A self-service tax-refund machine from the Agricultural Bank of China, supporting 15 languages, has been installed at the cultural and creative store’s refund zone.
Visitors will also encounter four cooking robots at two catering venues, capable of replicating the heat of Chinese wok cooking, purifying fumes and self-cleaning.
A 70-Year Barometer
The scale of the 140th edition underscores how far the fair has come. The event fills about 1.55 million square meters with 75,700 booths across 54 specialized sections, according to Guangzhou Daily’s 100-day countdown report, which also lists the three phases as Advanced Manufacturing (October 15-19), Quality Home Life (October 23-27) and Better Life (October 31 to November 4).
From the first session in 1957 — 9,600 square meters and 1,200 buyers — the fair has grown to roughly 310,000 buyers across 140 uninterrupted sessions, the same report noted. Its most recent spring edition, the 139th, drew 314,000 overseas buyers from 220 countries and regions, up 1.1 percent from the previous session, along with 407 leading buying enterprises.
What to Watch
The innovations are framed as a response to the practical friction of doing business at a fair of this scale, and as a test of China’s push to upgrade trade services amid global headwinds. Whether the digital tools translate into more signed deals — and how overseas buyers respond to the new membership tiering — will be the signals to watch as the fair unfolds through early November.