In a greeting message to Iranians on Nowruz, the Chinese ambassador to Tehran announces the opening of a magnificent trade event in his country also known as the 133rd Canton Fair.

First of all, I would like to send my sincere Nowruz greetings to all Iranian friends and wish you success and prosperity in the new Iranian year. While celebrating the auspicious traditional festival, the 133rd Canton Fair, known as a magnificent trade event in China, is also set to witness a grand opening, Chang Hua Ambassador of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Islamic Republic of Iran wrote in his message.

The full text of the message is as follows,

Canton Fair is an important window for China’s opening up and a major platform of foreign trade, serving as a critical channel for Chinese companies to explore the international market. The previous sessions of the Canton Fair have drawn wide attention from the global business community. Since 2020, we’ve introduced new models and held the Fair online for 6 sessions in response to the impact of COVID-19, which has helped keep the industrial and supply chains of foreign trade unimpeded and the fundamentals of foreign trade and investment stable. As China has optimized and adjusted the response to COVID-19, domestic and foreign enterprises could participate in the Fair on-site now, so starting from the spring session this year, the Canton Fair will fully resume on-site events. The 133rd Canton Fair will be held in Guangzhou from April 15 to May 5 in 3 phases. It will continue to provide 24/7 service for participants with the online platform.

The 133rd Canton Fair will leverage its newly built venue--Area D for the first time, expanding the exhibition area from 1.18 million to a record-breaking 1.5 million square meters. 54 specialized exhibition sections will host more than 30,000 exhibitors onsite, including more than 5,000 quality enterprises such as manufacturing champions for certain sectors and national high-tech enterprises, etc. Thus the quality of exhibitors is improved steadily. Meanwhile, all qualified exhibitors can participate in the Canton Fair online so that more companies could enjoy the benefits. The number of exhibitors participating online will exceed 35,000. Marketing campaigns have been intensified for the upcoming Canton Fair to attract more domestic and overseas buyers. More than 40 “Trade Bridge” matchmaking activities will be organized to help enterprises secure orders and expand markets. During the 133rd Canton Fair, the second Pearl River International Trade Forum, a series of industrial and specialized forums, and nearly 400 supporting activities for trade promotion will also be held to drive integrated development of the Fair.

Shortly before, President Raisi's visit to China achieved great success. During his meeting with President Xi Jinping, the two heads of state reached a series of important consensus on cooperation, emphasizing the necessity of implementing the comprehensive cooperation plan between the two countries, deepening cooperation in economic and trade fields, creating more practical cooperation achievements, and promoting the Sino-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level. The strengthening of bilateral cooperation in exhibitions is also a concrete approach to implement the consensus of the two presidents and will bring tangible benefits to the two countries and their people.

The 133rd Canton Fair is of great significance, as it is the first session held in the first year after the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the CPC and the first session to fully resume on-site events after COVID. China's organizing department of the fair, together with other authorities and localities, will do the best to stage a successful Canton Fair for all guests. My colleagues and I in Iran will provide coordination and services to facilitate the participation of Iranian enterprises. We welcome the Iranian business community to actively take part in the fair and harvest fruitful cooperation results, thus forging closer bilateral economic and trade ties and enriching the contents of Sino-Iranian bilateral cooperation.