China and the EU are expected to seize the opportunity of the ongoing China International Import Expo (CIIE) to advance the goal of reaching a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) by 2020, amid rising pressure from protectionism in the global market, corporate representatives and experts told the Global Times on Tuesday.

During a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the second CIIE in Shanghai, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will be happy to conclude high-standard free trade agreements with more countries and speed up negotiations on agreements such as the China-EU investment pact. 

Many companies from EU member states that attended the first CIIE in 2018 returned this year, and they expect that the event will produce more tangible outcomes. That expectation has helped drive them to add investment in the Chinese market, they told the Global Times.

This year's CIIE is being held from Tuesday to Sunday.

"After we joined the expo last year, the number of online searches for our products tripled in the fourth quarter and sales doubled in the first quarter of 2019," Cha Sheng, general manager of VorWerk China, told the Global Times on Tuesday. VorWerk is a Germany-based household appliances producer. 

Cha said that VorWerk has largely benefited from the CIIE, a global and open platform, since last year, and the firm plans to increase investment in the Chinese market in the coming years.

"We highly value the Chinese market and are actively expanding here, in the hope that our high-tech products can serve China's institutions and companies," Giuliano Felten, director of Italy-based Ferretti Security & Defence, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

European countries have attached importance to the CIIE as the annual event has brought increased opportunities for them, as can be seen in the fact that a number of EU leaders are attending the expo this year, said Sun Yongfu, former director general of the European Department of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).