GUANGZHOU, April 18 -- The China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) should play a bigger role in expanding China's high-level opening up and promoting the building of an open world economy, Premier Li Qiang said Thursday.

Li made the remarks when visiting an exhibition on the history of the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province.

He also toured the booths of multiple enterprises at the venue of the 135th session of the Canton Fair that kicked off on Monday.

Li encouraged enterprises to continuously improve their research and development capabilities, and strive for digital, intelligent and green transformation.

Enterprises should fully leverage the opportunities from the Canton Fair to enhance the popularity of Chinese brands and boost foreign trade, the premier said.

At a symposium with representatives of Canton Fair participating firms, Li expressed hope that foreign trade-oriented enterprises would make more efforts to explore the international market, raise the quality and added value of their products, and partake in the formulation of international standards.