Cross-border e-commerce, foreign trade and interconnectivity will be key to the future development of the convention and exhibition industry, experts said at a parallel sub-forum of the 2021 Guangdong 21th Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo Theme Forum.

The convention and exhibition industry, as a powerful driver of trade growth, plays a vital role in global economic recovery, industry experts said at the sub-forum. The steady progress of cross-border e-commerce, digital expos and exhibition representative services has brought new opportunities for the development of the convention and exhibition industry under the pandemic.

According to industry experts, traditional B2B offline exhibitions are mostly conducted on the basis of information matching, which means large business buyers need to go through a long purchase chain to complete trades. In comparison, as cross-border e-commerce continues to rise, transactions, Customs Clearance and logistics in trade between enterprises have become more convenient.

In the new form of exhibition, full links under cross-border e-commerce will greatly shorten the time to reach trade for buyers and exhibitors, and improve the efficiency of orders. "The new exhibition should be centered by 'obtaining customers for suppliers', and it needs to keep integrating cross-border e-commerce and offline exhibitions with the aim to develop a full link ecological exhibition," said Lin Hao, general manager of the exhibition department of Focus Technology Co Ltd.