More than an exhibition

Besides bustling business exchanges, the expo will serve as a platform for strengthening partnership in international free trade, while acting as a confidence booster for economic globalization and a countermeasure against protectionism.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, the expo will feature a forum on the global economy and trade, with a star-studded lineup to provide their thoughts on shared prosperity.

The Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum, with the theme "spurring new vitality of global trade, creating an open and win-win scenario", will be attended by over 2,000 government officials, international organization leaders, renowned entrepreneurs and academics from over 130 countries and regions.

Speakers and panelists will include Alibaba's Jack Ma, Microsoft co-founder and TerraPower Chairman Bill Gates, and Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The forum's three parallel sessions, focusing on trade and opening-up, trade and innovation, and trade and investment, respectively, will discuss major issues such as the new impetus for economic globalization, and the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

With only three days to go before the most significant event to follow the 2010 World Expo, Shanghai has been fine-tuning preparations for the upcoming import expo and is ready to welcome guests from across the world.

Publicity covering the CIIE can be seen in almost every corner of the financial metropolis, and the new look Shanghai has put on for the expo has become the talk of the town.

Light decorations have been added to a 20-km stretch of the city's signature Huangpu River, as well as four bridges that span it. Hundreds of thousands of pots of flowers now adorn the city.

Shanghai has also trained 5,000 volunteers, who will offer various services including translation. At Shanghai Pudong International Airport, round-the-clock foreign language translation services have been put in place since late September.

"More than 20 volunteers who can speak a total of 12 foreign languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, French, Arabian and Italian, are ready to offer help to our foreign visitors," said Shi Zhiying from the service center team at Pudong airport.

To ease road traffic congestion and ensure the smooth running of the expo, the municipal government has announced plans to move two working days.

The first two days of the expo, Nov 5 and 6, have been designated public holidays, with Nov 3 and 11 set as working days to compensate.

Shanghai residents said they are looking forward to the positive changes that the event is expected to bring.

"Many foreign brands have entered China for the first time at the expo, and that is a good business opportunity," said Yang Xiaolan, a student at Shanghai International Studies University. "I hope the expo can create more jobs for Shanghai and the whole country."

Wu Yanwen, a senior student at Tongji University, said: "With CIIE, Shanghai residents will be exposed to more imported items, thus having a wider choice of quality products. I also hope more people can learn more about Shanghai and Chinese culture, and how we are marching toward the 'Chinese dream'."

Xinhua contributed to this story.