Zhejiang Xianju Junye Pharmaceutical Co Ltd reaches a strategic cooperation agreement with Fortune Global 500 Company Honeywell during the fifth CIIE in Shanghai on Nov 7. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfb001]

Taizhou in East China's Zhejiang province has enjoyed huge dividends brought by the China International Import Expo over the past five years.

Each year, the city organized a delegation of nearly 1,000 companies to attend the expo, and intended procurement deals secured by these companies at each edition were valued at more than $100 million, according to the Taizhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

Participating in the CIIE has facilitated the balanced and healthy development of foreign trade in Taizhou, a national manufacturing hub, noted a head official at the bureau.

The expo has not only expanded the city's import scale, but also driven local industrial transformation and consumption upgrading.

Zhejiang China-Africa International Trade Port Service Co Ltd, a foreign trade company based in Taizhou and a five-time CIIE participant, inked a paper pulp procurement deal valued at 230 million yuan ($32.86 million) with Sinar Mas Group from Indonesia at the fifth CIIE, which concluded on Nov 10.

The two parties signed deals worth $28 million and $30 million at the third and fourth expos respectively.

The fifth CIIE also witnessed the inking of a strategic cooperation agreement between Fortune Global 500 Company Honeywell and Zhejiang Xianju Junye Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.

According to the agreement, the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in digital empowerment of steroidal drug production and technological innovation in production management.

At this year's expo, Yuhuan, a county-level city in Taizhou, inked a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the China Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand.

The agreement comes after Damaiyu Port in Yuhuan was in May designated the second entry port in China following Shanghai for New Zealand's Zespri kiwi fruit. To date, over 80,000 metric tons of kiwi fruit worth nearly 2 billion yuan have been imported via Damaiyu Port.

Jin Shili, vice president of Zespri Greater China, said that cooperation with Yuhuan will provide a larger market for Zespri, adding that the company will further increase exports to China via Yuhuan.