(Yicai Global) Jan. 28 -- Shanghai is quite sure it can hold an even better, more productive China International Import Expo this year, and has brought a recent resurgence of novel coronavirus cases under control, the city’s mayor said yesterday.

Shanghai welcomes businesses worldwide to participate in the fourth CIIE, the world’s only national-level import expo, Gong Zheng said. The municipality was still able to hold the third CIIE on schedule last year, despite the pandemic raging, when many other global events had to be cancelled or went virtual.

More deals were sealed at last year’s CIIE, the world’s largest international exhibit that year with a display area of almost 360,000 square meters, than in 2019. Some USD72.6 billion worth of contracts for one-year purchases of goods and services were inked, a gain of 2.1 percent from the year before.

More than half of the world's Fortune Global 500 companies participated in the CIIE, almost 50 of which were newcomers. Many firms have already booked a space at the fourth CIIE, and some have even made reservations for the fifth and sixth expos.

Beating the Virus

Sixteen cases of Covid-19 were discovered in Shanghai from Jan. 20 to Jan. 27, the mayor said. The city immediately leapt into action with orderly, precise and effective epidemic prevention and control measures, and the new outbreak is already under control.

As soon as the new cases were discovered, Shanghai activated its contingency plan and quickly identified the close contacts of the cases and the scope of their movements. The action taken was “no more than required and no less than necessary.” Instead of mass testing, only 41,000 people have been screened so far, Gong said.

Despite that, Shanghai cannot slack off on prevention and control work and will step up the frequency of regular screening of key groups, he added.

Residents should continue to wear masks, keep social distancing and pay attention to personal hygiene, he added.

Editor: Kim Taylor