Li Qiang shared big news at Shanghai trade show: China wants to make its free-trade areas better and talk with other countries about money-deals (a must-do thing in todays world where some countries dont play nice)
The mega-fair which started about 6 years ago by Xi Jinping brings lots of foreign companies to China; this time around 3‚500 firms from 152 places came to show their stuff. Big names like LʼOreal and Siemens joined in while leaders from Malaysia and Slovakia watched the kick-off
Looking at numbers and plans Li said: China will let foreign companies work in phone-business and health-care more freely. He seemed pretty sure about hitting this years money targets — the government has some tricks up its sleeve to help things along
Last years show got deals worth $78.4 billion‚ but some people (like Euro-business folks) think its more of a look-how-good-we-are show than real business. Still China needs this event now — with slow buying at home weak house-market and not-so-friendly talks with USA and Europe going on
The trade-show happens when Chinaʼs shop-keeping isnt doing so hot: people arenʼt buying much and prices keep dropping. But Li thinks opening doors wider to outside business might help fix things up