For seven consecutive years, we have been serving the Import Expo, actively supporting its continuous improvement with practical actions.

Shanghai, November 20, 2024 / PRNewswire / - From November 5th to 10th, the seventh China International Import Expo was held as scheduled at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). A total of 3,496 exhibitors from 129 countries and regions participated in this Import Expo, exceeding the number of countries/regions and companies from previous editions. The number of Fortune Global 500 companies and leading companies in various sectors participating reached 297, setting a new historical record.

This year also marks the seventh consecutive year that Shanghai Foreign Service Co., Ltd. has been serving the Import Expo. As a leading enterprise in the domestic human resources service industry, Shanghai Foreign Service Co., Ltd. continues to provide high-quality professional services for the Import Expo, supporting its continuous improvement with higher standards, better quality, and innovative services, working hand in hand with all sectors to "build dreams together."

Honoring the appointment to attend the Import Expo again.

Established in 1984, Shanghai Foreign Service, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, also participated in the Import Expo for the second time.

In the "Clover" service trade exhibition area, the Shanghai Foreign Service booth is themed "Building Dreams Together", with the main colors of Foreign Service Blue and Innovative Red blending together. The number 40 is cleverly integrated into the overall spatial design of the booth in a three-dimensional form, vividly showcasing the brand image of Shanghai Foreign Service at the age of 40 as being ambitious, innovative, and integrated.

The booth shining in red and blue also serves as a report card for the 40 years of development of Shanghai Foreign Service.

In the "Digital Panoramic Service" sector, the visual digital screens combining the company's operational and business data showcase Shanghai Foreign Service's professional capabilities in digital operation and refined management. The "International Development" sector demonstrates Shanghai Foreign Service's specialized services for Hong Kong-bound enterprises and talents arriving in Hong Kong, as well as comprehensive and efficient international solutions provided to multinational corporations. The "Multi-dimensional Talent Service" sector illustrates Shanghai Foreign Service's active practice of social responsibility in promoting employment stability, talent service enhancement, and its initiatives and achievements in a talent-strong nation.

The Overseas Development Service Center in Hongqiao, operated by Shanghai Waifu, also made its debut at the exhibition to help Chinese enterprises 'go global'. The center, led by the Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District Management Committee, focuses on the four core functions of 'one-stop' information consultation, 'international' professional services, 'end-to-end' project investment, and 'integrated' risk prevention, providing online and offline, governmental, and market-oriented comprehensive services for Yangtze River Delta enterprises to 'go global', continuously optimizing governmental services and market-oriented professional services to create a bridgehead for assisting enterprises in their international development.

Openness is a distinctive symbol of the modernization with Chinese characteristics and a core concept of the Import Expo. In order to accelerate international development and participate in international competition at a quicker pace, Shanghai Waifu has signed a global strategic cooperation agreement with Deel, a global leading integrated payroll and HR platform. Both parties will work together to create global payroll and comprehensive HR solutions, assisting multinational companies in achieving compliance and efficient operation. They held a strategic cooperation framework agreement ceremony with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited, using Hong Kong, China as an important bridge and window to strengthen cooperation globally, build an open, inclusive, and win-win ecosystem, promote deepening cooperation in multiple areas, establish a long-term cooperation mechanism, and comprehensively advance multidimensional cooperation in international human resources services.

Leveraging the important opportunity of the Import Expo, Shanghai Waifu has signed human resources service cooperation agreements and cooperation framework agreements with Brother (China) Commercial Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Corporation China Group, DEXUN (China) Freight Forwarding Agency Co., Ltd., Cosco (Shanghai) Investment Co., Ltd. Workers' Committee, Tian Hao (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Jibao City Development (China) Co., Ltd., and Bank of Nanjing Shanghai Branch. This further deepens the business cooperation between Shanghai Waifu and its client partners, helping client enterprises better cope with the complex changes in the local and international markets and enhance their core competitiveness.

Based on years of in-depth thinking and innovative exploration of enterprise human resource management needs and pain points, Shanghai Waifu released a series of annual reports during this Import Expo, including the '2024 China Human Resource Services Industry Research Report', '2024 Enterprise Blue-collar and Grey-collar Management Status Research Report', 'Z Generation Workplace Choice Insights Report', and 'Smart Human Resources, Leading the Future-2024 Generative AI Empowered Human Resource Management Research Report'. These reports revolve around the new changes and demands in enterprise human resource management, providing cutting-edge data references and professional perspectives to guide the future of enterprise human resource management. The event attracted many industry professionals and audiences to discuss and share the latest concepts and practices in human resource management, injecting new vitality and ideas into the continuous development and progress of the industry.

At the same time, Shanghai Foreign Service also grandly launched the annual series of new products - "Comprehensive Solutions for Enterprises and Talents in Hong Kong, China" "Integrated Solution for Elastic Benefits" "Metaverse Campus Recruitment Solution" and "Zero Worries Opt-in - One-Stop Solution for Talent Selection Risk Identification", fully demonstrating Shanghai Foreign Service's continuous enhancement of the ability to be "professionally leading, digitally driven, globally positioned", serving the latest practices and achievements of the national talent powerhouse strategy and overseas development layout.

Polish the business card for the Import Expo

"For the Import Expo, let's go! Move forward, cherish youth!" On October 15, the seventh China International Import Expo Volunteer Oath-taking Ceremony was held at the Friendship Hall of the Shanghai Exhibition Center. 3488 "little leaves" volunteers used solemn and loud youthful vows to demonstrate the firmness and sincerity of the new generation of Chinese youth, aspiring to shoulder responsibilities for the motherland with youth and dedication.

After years of tempering, the "little leaf" has become the most beautiful youth business card of the Import Expo, shining on-site in nine major categories and 165 types of positions such as guidance consultation, exhibition registration management, guest contact reception, news publicity support, trade data statistics, information technology support, welcome assistive support, administrative assistive support, medical health assistive support. This is inseparable from the careful organization of Shanghai Foreign Service.

Since the start of the volunteer service guarantee work for this import expo, Shanghai Waifu has cooperated closely with the Shanghai Communist Youth League Committee to formulate the Volunteer Service Guarantee Group work plan, implement various volunteer recruitment, selection, training exercises, and on-site management, to ensure the successful and splendid hosting of the seventh import expo.

This year, 7 professional personnel from Shanghai Waifu have been stationed in the project team early to provide strong assistance and support for the import expo. With rich experience in large-scale event management and international exhibition services, they have provided technical support in multiple key areas such as coordination, on-site exercises, organizational publicity, training patrols, and job allocation needs.

In order to help the 'little leaves' balance between their studies and volunteer services for the import expo, Shanghai Waifu has carefully coordinated volunteer courses, dining support, cross-campus vehicle support, and promotional incentives. The 'little leaf' volunteers of this import expo include volunteers for the duration of the event, long-term management positions, as well as volunteers from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, with a total scale of around 3600. Among them, volunteers for the event period are recruited and selected from 43 schools. The first batch of more than 70 long-term management position volunteers, after unified training, started to work gradually in mid-September to provide services.

Shanghai Waifu has been undertaking on-site operation and service guarantee projects for the import expo for six consecutive years. Starting from July each year, project personnel from Shanghai Waifu begin to arrive in batches until the end of December when the follow-up work for the import expo is completed. During this period, Shanghai Waifu is mainly responsible for volunteer recruitment, coordinating with the departments for personnel needs, volunteer job allocation, preparation and implementation of various exercises, as well as on-site volunteer management, enabling youthful volunteers to play a part in China's modernization.

Spread the voice of the Import Expo.

The Import Expo, as the world's first national exhibition with imports as its theme, is a great platform that connects both domestically and internationally. Spreading the "good voice" of the Import Expo, Shanghai Waifu is taking action.

Shanghai Waifu's "Translate with Heart and Soul" service team for the Import Expo was established in December 2017 and has been the official designated translation service provider for the "China International Import Expo" for seven consecutive years. Over the seven years, a project management team and translation team of more than 350 people were dispatched, providing services for over 1200 occasions, covering more than 130,000 participants.

Shanghai Waifu's "Translate with Heart and Soul" service team for the Import Expo has always adhered to the service concept of "integrating knowledge with action", bridging China and the world with language, and providing "one-stop interpretation and translation services featuring professional translation as a strength and comprehensive solutions as a feature" to ensure full translation work before, during, and after the Expo.

During the 7th Import Expo, Shanghai Waifu dispatched over a hundred outstanding interpreters to provide simultaneous interpretation, liaison interpretation, shorthand, simultaneous interpretation equipment, and translation services for the Hongqiao International Economic Forum, corporate business exhibitions, national exhibitions, cultural exchange activities, as well as multiple large forums associated with the Import Expo. They also expanded a translation team of 200 translators specializing in minor languages from Asia, Africa, and countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, as a reserve force for off-site activities, adding talents specializing in minor languages such as Persian, Tajik, Afghan, Lao, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Azerbaijani, Tatar, and more.

It is worth mentioning that due to the continuous expansion, starting from the 2nd Import Expo, Shanghai Waifu's "Yixinyiyi" service emergency team not only needs to provide translation services for confirmed demands from exhibitors and buyers but also needs to be proactive, selecting a team of safeguard interpreters. The team needs to include outstanding interpreters of various languages to deal with various unexpected translation needs. This has significantly increased the team's workload, difficulty of work, and various expenses.

Nevertheless, the final results prove that all efforts are worthwhile. Since the establishment of the safeguard interpreter team, they have handled nearly a hundred unexpected language service incidents, resolving many urgent needs for clients. For example, providing emergency liaison interpretation services for the Kenya Trade Forum, assisting Zimbabwean senior officials to enter the venue urgently and providing temporary translation services for their delegation, providing emergency French liaison interpretation services for the former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, urgently providing Vietnamese temporary business negotiation services for Chinese buyers, eventually successfully signing a large order for durian imports, and providing bilingual hosting for important performance events at the Yunnan exhibition stand. Today, the safeguard interpreter team has become an indispensable and important part of Shanghai Waifu's "Yixinyiyi" service emergency team for the Import Expo.

Every detail in diplomacy matters, every occasion represents the image of China, and every interpreter represents the voice of China. During the 7th Import Expo, the "Yixinyiyi" emergency team provided escort services for core forums of the Import Expo, such as the Hongqiao International Economic Forum membership forum, corporate business exhibitions, national exhibitions, cultural exchange activities, and multiple large forums associated with the Import Expo–"Digital Empowering Inclusive Finance" Hongqiao Forum membership forum, comprehensive support for the innovative development of the biomedical industry—promote the overall construction of a Healthy China theme event among others, successfully completing diversified translation services such as simultaneous interpretation, conference liaison interpretation, business meetings, booth interpretation, accompanying interpretation, bilingual hosting, bilingual narration, and received unanimous praise.

In the face of the unexpected situation where foreign guests originally scheduled for the forum event could not attend, the rapid response translation service team quickly responded to the changing needs of the client, providing a solution in a timely manner. For example, the night before the first Sumer Trade International Cooperation and Development Forum at 7 pm, the team learned that the attending Ambassador of Kazakhstan to China had a sudden change in schedule. The host China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing invited two Economic and Commercial Counselors from Armenia to attend instead. The demand for real-time Russian whispered interpretation and relay services was changed to English whispered interpretation and relay services. The team urgently contacted senior foreign affairs translation teachers and within half an hour confirmed an English interpreter for the next morning, smoothly ensuring the translation tasks for the forum.

Today, the Import Expo has become a window for China to build a new development pattern, a platform for promoting high-level opening up, and a global shared international public product. Shanghai's overseas service 'Translation from the Heart' service young emergency team has built a bridge connecting China and the world, showcasing the image and style of Shanghai's overseas service.

Amplification of spill-over effects

In recent years, Shanghai's overseas service has taken the opportunity of the strategic cooperative relationships established during the Import Expo to continuously amplify the spillover effects of the Expo, expand in-depth cooperation in the human resources field with local governments and local state-owned enterprises, achieving mutual benefit, common development, and a series of accomplishments.

During the 5th import expo in 2022, Dahao Lan Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Jiangxi Da Cheng State-owned Capital Group; after nearly a year of joint venture negotiations and on-site evaluations, in September 2023, Shanghai Foreign Service respectively signed a joint venture agreement with Jiangxi Da Cheng State-owned Capital Group's Jiangxi Province Youfu and signed an investment agreement with the Donghu District Government of Nam Cheong, Shanghai.

Currently, Shanghai Foreign Service has established a Jiangxi company, hoping to rely on mutual benefits, complementary advantages, promote deep integration and common development of Shanghai and Jiangxi state-owned enterprises, and create a leading enterprise in the human resources industry in the Jiangxi region.

In September 2023, Shanghai Foreign Service visited Gu'an, Guizhou for on-site inspections and reached important consensus with relevant leaders of the Guizhou Municipal Party Committee and Government on strengthening cooperation in the field of modern human resources services industry. During the 6th import expo, Shanghai Foreign Service signed a cooperation framework agreement with the Guiyang Municipal People's Government and the Guian New Area Management Committee of Guizhou.

To strengthen strategic synergy, accelerate project implementation, Shanghai Foreign Service jointly established a Guizhou company by the end of 2023, actively seizing new opportunities for development in Guizhou, empowering new business, new technology, and new resources to Guizhou, setting an example of Shanghai-Guizhou state-owned joint venture cooperation, and building a leading human resources enterprise in Guizhou Province.

Shanghai Foreign Service actively leverages the Import Expo platform to establish strategic partnerships, improve the national layout of the human resources industry through regional coordination and resource integration, continuously amplifying the spillover effects of the Import Expo, creating an ecosystem of integrated development in professions, employment, and industries, assisting in the construction of Shanghai's talent highland, and supporting the alignment with the strategy of building a strong country with talents.

Service connects the future. Forty years is a milestone and a new starting point. Shanghai Foreign Service embarking on a new journey will continue to seize the opportunity to showcase its national window at the Import Expo, make good use of the spillover effects of the Import Expo, bridge and guide, attract talents for business development, and show the world the multi-dimensional aspects of China.