Zhejiang province holds a promotional event for key import platforms at the CIIE. [Photo/hangzhou.com.cn]

In addition to the exhibitors, buyers from Hangzhou have been attaching more importance to localized manufacturing.

For example, Yijia Kerry, a Singaporean food processing company, opened its central kitchen plant in Hangzhou and for the first time exhibited local products at CIIE, including braised meat balls in brown sauce, roast beef brisket with potato, sautéed beef filet with black pepper, and stewed pork with brown sauce.

The biopharmaceuticals industry, a pillar industry of Hangzhou, also gained much attention at CIIE, with Dian Diagnostics procuring 200 million yuan ($27.64 million) of in-vitro diagnostics and biochemical immunology instruments and reagents from Roche, and Huadong Medicine and Int'l Group purchasing 150 million yuan in innovative drugs from AstraZeneca.

"With the help of CIIE, we can deepen our connections with world-renowned pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Bayer, Novartis, Sanofi, and Roche and bring in more effective and affordable drugs," said Ye Xin, manager of the procurement department at Int'l Group.