Jammu Journal

Guangzhou, China – November 6, 2026 – By the banks of the Pearl River, merchants from around the world gather. The 140th Canton Fair was held in Guangzhou from October 15 to November 4. This year coincides with the 70th anniversary of the fair’s founding. A total of 32,000 exhibitors gathered in Guangzhou, including more than 11,000 high-quality enterprises such as “Specialized, Refined, Differential and Innovative” (SRDI) Enterprises and single-item champions. New products and green products accounted for 23.2% and 26% of exhibits, respectively, both hitting record highs.

As the “barometer” and “wind vane” of China’s foreign trade, the Canton Fair has built an important platform for Sino-foreign economic and trade cooperation. From the “universal card” serving merchants from five continents inside the exhibition hall, to the “timely loan” easing cash-flow pressure in enterprise workshops, and to the “expressway” of cross-border settlement escorting enterprises on their overseas voyages, the Agricultural Bank of China is using cross-border finance as its pen to write a vivid answer sheet on financial services for stabilizing foreign trade.

Image: Agricultural Bank of China at the Canton Fair

The warmth the Agricultural Bank of China brings to the Canton Fair begins the moment buyers step into the exhibition hall.

In a hotel supporting the Canton Fair exhibition complex, guided by an ABC staff member, a foreign buyer lightly placed his passport on the card-issuing and top-up machine. After completing facial verification, a card printed with the Canton Tower and the Canton Fair exhibition hall was dispensed. He held the card near his phone and, via NFC, jumped to a dedicated service webpage, where translation, spending, transportation, navigation, and tax refund functions were immediately clear at a glance. “This card is amazing! Tonight I’m going to take it to enjoy Guangzhou’s food,” he said delightedly.

This “ABC e-CNY PASS,” built on a digital RMB hard wallet, integrates five distinctive functions: AI-powered smart translation, digital exhibition-hall navigation, cultural-tourism consumption discounts, one-card access across the Greater Bay Area, and convenient departure tax refunds, making it a “universal assistant” for foreign buyers attending the fair. When Australian buyer Fei Yalun was purchasing noise-canceling earphones at Guangzhou Buynow Electronic Mall, he checked the tax-refund guide through the card’s dedicated webpage and found that the product he bought happened to meet departure tax-refund requirements. “Even tax refunds are this simple. This trip to Guangzhou is full of surprises!” he said with a smile, pointing at the screen.

Image: Agricultural Bank of China provides convenient and efficient cross-border financial services for foreign buyers

Beyond the exhibition hall, financial services are equally convenient and smooth. Across Guangdong (excluding Shenzhen), nearly 1,500 ABC banking outlets support simplified account opening for foreign nationals, and nearly 3,000 ATM devices support cash withdrawal with foreign cards such as VISA, Mastercard, and American Express. Outlets around the Canton Fair have simultaneously opened “green channels” for offline business, prioritizing accounts, settlement, financing, and other services related to the fair.

In addition, the Agricultural Bank of China has worked with the Canton Fair to open an online financial services zone. Exhibitors and buyers can scan a QR code to query product information and submit business requests, enabling financial needs to be handled “on code.” Driven by digital intelligence, the Agricultural Bank of China turns the “urgent, difficult, anxious, and hopeful” concerns of foreign buyers attending the fair into a “satisfaction list” of financial services, creating a more convenient and open environment for cultivating new growth points in foreign trade.

Strength in the Workshop: Tiered Services Precisely Empower Exhibitors

If financial services in the exhibition hall are the “face,” then tangible financing support for enterprises is the “inner substance.”

Guangzhou Mianhong Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Mianhong Electronics”) is an SRDI enterprise that has appeared at multiple consecutive Canton Fairs. To prepare for the fair, the company expanded production and stockpiled goods several months in advance. Combined with sustained investment in product iteration and R&D, pressure on capital occupation suddenly increased. “To prepare well, we stepped up stockpiling several months ahead, and our funding needs were relatively large,” admitted Mr. Zhang, the company’s person in charge. At the same time, the company’s products are sold to many countries and regions around the world, and multi-currency foreign-exchange collection and cross-border settlement are real challenges that enterprises cannot avoid when going global.

In response to Mianhong Electronics’ operating characteristics—light assets and heavy R&D—the Agricultural Bank of China did not take the traditional route of collateral and pledges. Instead, it provided the enterprise with a pure credit loan, precisely filling the funding gap for stockpiling and production ahead of the Canton Fair. “Thanks to ABC’s 10 million yuan loan support, our urgent need for export stockpiling was solved in time,” Mr. Zhang said.

To meet the full range of the enterprise’s cross-border operating needs, the Agricultural Bank of China simultaneously implemented goods-trade facilitation policies to speed up cross-border payment settlement efficiency, and popularized hedging tools such as forward foreign-exchange settlement and sales for the enterprise, helping it establish an exchange-rate risk hedging mechanism.

“ABC also gives us great support in cross-border settlement, exchange-rate risk management, and other areas,” Mr. Zhang said. With sufficient production working capital, combined with smooth settlement channels and risk-prevention mechanisms, the enterprise can focus its main energy on product display and buyer negotiations at the Canton Fair, and confidently take on overseas intended orders.

Image: ABC staff visit a Canton Fair exhibitor

To provide good financial services for Canton Fair exhibitors, the ABC Guangdong Branch relies on its “one project, one plan” cluster service mechanism, opens fast approval channels based on enterprises’ real orders and operating cash flows, eases funding turnover pressure for small and medium-sized manufacturers, and tailors financial plans for enterprises of different tracks and scales, helping consolidate the fundamentals of foreign trade.

Breadth on the Shipping Lanes: Innovative Products Escort Enterprises as They Sail Far

A single loan solves an immediate need, while a system of innovative products can provide lasting momentum for the growth of new foreign-trade formats and models. When enterprises move from traditional goods trade to new areas such as cross-border e-commerce and trade in intermediate goods, they often face not only funding gaps but also deeper financial needs such as settlement efficiency, clearing costs, and exchange-rate locking.

A Guangzhou-basedbattery manufacturer is also a “familiar face” at the Canton Fair. As the enterprise’s overseas footprint continues to expand, it hopes to match cross-border financial services more suited to global operations. The ABC Guangdong Branch innovatively launched an “Amazon cross-border e-commerce direct-connected foreign-exchange collection” service. Through direct system connection with the platform, it accelerates global payment collection and capital turnover, greatly improving the enterprise’s settlement efficiency.

During this Canton Fair, the ABC Guangdong Branch launched a dedicated product system, focusing on the needs of foreign-trade enterprises in overseas market expansion, traditional export and new foreign-trade formats. It embeds financial services more deeply into every link of international trade and provides a package of comprehensive services including cross-border settlement, exchange-rate hedging, and trade financing, comprehensively clearing bottlenecks in foreign-trade enterprises’ operations. To date, the branch has cumulatively provided cross-border financial services to more than 30,000 foreign-trade enterprises across the province, with annual international settlement volume exceeding US$220 billion.

Seventy years of the Canton Fair have witnessed the leap from “Made in China” to “Intelligently Made in China.” Standing at a new starting point, the Agricultural Bank of China will continue to use cross-border financial innovation as its engine, doing “addition” in settlement efficiency, “subtraction” in financing costs, and “multiplication” in service experience. It will use the power of finance to cultivate new growth points in foreign trade, use the bridge of finance to connect the domestic and international dual circulations, and inject lasting momentum into the new journey of serving high-level opening-up.

About ABChina

Across Guangdong (excluding Shenzhen), nearly 1,500 ABC banking outlets support simplified account opening for foreign nationals, and nearly 3,000 ATM devices support cash withdrawal with foreign cards such as VISA, Mastercard, and American Express. Outlets around the Canton Fair have simultaneously opened “green channels” for offline business, prioritizing accounts, settlement, financing, and other services related to the fair.

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