Chinese Ambassador On 6 November, Business Day, Independent Media published an article by H.E. Ambassador Lin Songtian titled China International Import Expo: China is Ready to Share Its Enormous Market Opportunities with the World. The full text is as follow:: China is Ready to Share Its Enormous Market Opportunities with the World

     2018年11月6日，驻南非大使林松添在南最具影响力的报纸《商报》、《星报》发表署名文章《中国国际进口博览会：与世界分享庞大的市场机遇》。全文如下：

　　11月5日至10日，首届中国国际进口博览会将在上海举行。中国国家主席习近平以及约172个国家和地区的政要、工商界人士及有关国际组织负责人将应邀与会。3600多家企业参展，其中包括200多家世界500强和行业龙头企业，首次进入中国的新产品将达5000多种。南非、俄罗斯、巴西、埃及、印尼、英国、德国等12个主宾国将设立专门的国家馆。超过40多万名境内外采购商到会洽谈采购。

On 6 November, Business Day, Independent Media published an article by H.E. Ambassador Lin Songtian titled China International Import Expo: China is Ready to Share Its Enormous Market Opportunities with the World. The full text is as follow:

On 5-10 November, the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held in Shanghai. The Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders from governments, businesses, and international organizations from around 172 countries and regions will attend. Over 3,600 businesses from the world will be represented, of which over 200 are Fortune 500 companies. More than 5,000 new types of products will enter the Chinese market for the first time. 12 "Guests of Honor", including South Africa, Russia, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, UK, and Germany have set up dedicated national pavillions in the Expo. Over 400,000 purchasers from China and overseas will hold discussions and seek buisiness opportunities.

　　此次博览会是迄今为止世界上第一个以进口产品和进口贸易为主题的国家级博览会，是国际贸易发展史上的一大创举，是中国坚定支持贸易自由化和经济全球化、主动向世界开放市场的重大举措，也是中国同世界致力于合作共赢、共同发展的具体行动。

　　今年是中国改革开放四十周年。40年来，中国国内生产总值年均增长约9.5%，对外贸易额年均增长14.5%，国内生产总值增长了30多倍，创造了人类教科书里从未有过的发展奇迹，让13亿中国人民生活从物资短缺走向小康，7亿多贫困人口成功脱贫，4亿多人口步入中等收入群体，从根本上满足了中国人民就业、居住、温饱、医疗和教育等基本人权需求，为世界人权事业树立了典范。今天，中国已成为全球第二大经济体。中国连续多年对世界经济增长贡献率超过30%,多年保持美国、俄罗斯、日本、欧洲、南非等世界100多个主要国家最大贸易伙伴地位，是促进世界经济发展当之无愧的主要引擎。

As a pioneering step in the history of international trade, the CIIE is the world's first ever national import expo. It is a major measure and concrete action of China to proactively open its market, firmly support trade liberalization and economic globalization, and to pursue win-win cooperation for common development with the world.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. Over the past 40 years, China has achieved over 30 times of GDP growth, averaging an annual growth rate of 9.5%. China's Foreign trade volume has been growing at 14.5% per year. The life of the nearly 1.4 billion Chinese people has been transformed from austerity to moderate prosperity, lifting over 700 million out of poverty, and enabling over 400 million to successfully become the middle class-income population. China has created a development miracle never happened before in the textbook of human history. Through reform and opening up, China has fundamentally ensure the basic human rights to work, to housing, to food, to hospital, and to school for its 1.4 billion population, making a great example for the world in promoting the great cause of human rights. Today, as the world's second largest economy and as the main engine for the world economy, China has for many years maintained over 30% contribution to world economic growth, and has for many years remained the largest trading partner of over 100 countries across the world, including the United States, Russia, Japan, South Africa, and European countries.