(Yicai Global) Oct. 29 -- An increasing number of nations and companies, including the China International Import Expo's first country participants online, have registered to join the fourth annual expo in Shanghai.

The Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Mauritius, the Solomon Islands, and the State of Palestine will become the first nations to join the CIIE online, Sun Chenghai, vice director of the CIIE bureau, said at a press conference yesterday. The event will be held Nov. 5-10. 

Some 58 countries and three international organizations have booked their spots to attend the country exhibitions section, per Sun. Besides familiar names such as the US and Japan, the group includes a rising number of nations along China's Belt and Road initiative, as well as in central and eastern Europe. 

This year's business section is larger and better structured, with a higher quality of exhibitors, said Sun. Almost 3,000 exhibitors from 127 countries and regions across five continents will join. The total exhibition area has been expanded to 366,000 square meters.

Domestic buyers have actively signed for the event. Some 39 trade groups and nearly 600 sub-groups are expected to visit the 2021 CIIE for procurement.

Participants are set to debut many new products at the trade expo, featuring world-leading auction houses, high-end consumer goods enterprises, grain merchants, automobile giants, medical equipment behemoths, and beauty retailers.

More than four-fifths of the Fortune 500 and industry leaders that attended the third CIIE last year are expected to join this year, while the group is expanding with new participants.

The more than 1,500 firms from G20 member states are predicted to make up half of the number of business exhibitors, with an area of more than 230,000 sqm. More than 600 firms from 50 Belt and Road member countries will attend this year. Over 80 exhibitors come from Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa, four of the five emerging BRICS economies.

This year, the list of exhibitors will include Chinese offshore regions, including more than 370 firms from the Hong Kong and Macao Special administrative regions, as well as Taiwan province, occupying more than 50,000 sqm of exhibition area. 

Nearly 200 exhibitors come from members, observers, and dialogue partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a multilateral alliance of Eurasian countries. More than 120 exhibitors hail from central and eastern European countries.

Editor: Xu Wei, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi