A signing ceremony for the 2020 China International Import Expo took place Wednesday during this year's ongoing expo in Shanghai.

At the event, 21 companies and nine foreign agencies at the expo's venue, the National Exhibition and Convention Center, signed up for the third edition of CIIE.

The companies include major players in different industries, such as French cosmetics company L'Oreal Group, British automobile company Jaguar Land Rover, and US healthcare company Johnson & Johnson, as well as Thailand conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group.

Among other agencies seeking to return are the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce, the Japan External Trade Organization, Singapore Business Federation and Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Apart from the above-mentioned companies, more than 110 companies have already signed up for next year's expo, reserving an exhibition area of 60,000 square meters, according to the CIIE Bureau, one of the expo's organizers. In August the bureau started accepting applications for the third CIIE.

Wang Bingnan, vice-minister of commerce and director of the CIIE bureau, said at the ceremony that about 3,700 companies, 127 governmental delegations and more than 500,000 buyers are participating in the ongoing expo from approximately 180 countries and regions.