The sixth China International Import Expo, or the CIIE, scheduled to be held in Shanghai from Nov 5 to 10 this year, has a total of 330,000 square meters of contracted area to date, with more than 280 Fortune 500 and industrial leading companies expected to participate in this year's event.

Fifteen global automakers, three mining giants, 10 large industrial electric appliance enterprises, 10 renowned medical equipment enterprises and the big four accounting firms have all confirmed to attend this year's CIIE, according to Sun Chenghai, deputy director-general of the CIIE Bureau, at a promotion event held in Shanghai on Thursday, news portal ThePaper reported.

A total of 45 enterprises from the Consumer Goods exhibition area and 25 companies from the Trade in Services area participated in yesterday's event. Purchasers such as Petro China, Sinopec, CNOOC, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Sinopharm Group attended the promotion event.

According to Sun, the previous five editions of CIIE have reached a cumulative intended transaction volume of nearly $350 billion and launched more than 2,000 representative new products, new technologies and new services. As to this year's edition, 12 trading groups have released 612 procurement requirements and the Bureau has held regional promotion road shows in Qinghai, Chongqing, Qingdao, Hebei and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region since June this year.