China's eastern city Shanghai aims to further promote the growth of Hongqiao international opening-up hub through this year's innovation-themed Hongqiao International Opening-Up Hub Building Forum and Hub Conference 2023, a parallel session of the Hongqiao International Economic Forum of the sixth China International Import Expo, said Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District Management Committee on Wednesday.

The hub, which contains the Hongqiao International CBD and parts of the neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, has been built into a 7,000-square-meter international opening-up hub to bridge the domestic and international markets.

Since the first edition in 2021, the Hongqiao Hub conference has attracted a host of Nobel laureates, academics, representatives of the world's top enterprises and industry giants, and other high-profile guests to share insights into exploring higher-level opening-up and reinforcing international cooperation.

In order to better adapt to the new circumstances and demands of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta and the latest wave of scientific and technological revolution and industrial changes, this year's conference, scheduled to be held on Nov 6, promises to be a grand event marrying innovation with regional synergy development.

The conference will once again feature more world-renowned experts and business representatives, including Jean Tirole, the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, Jin Liqun, president and chair of the Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Professor Zheng Yongnian from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Judy Marks, chair, president and CEO of Otis Worldwide Corporation, and more, to discuss topics like industrial upgrading, higher-level opening-up and core competitiveness.

"Shanghai's Hongqiao area is projected to use the conference to further explore the spillover effect of the CIIE, help China embrace new momentum for high-quality development, and attract more global resources and production factors to tap into the myriad opportunities in the vast Chinese market", the committee said.

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