BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The World Winter Sports Expo 2019 is set to be held here from October 17 to 20, attracting more than 600 exhibition brands from home and abroad.

The exhibition area of the Expo is 30,000 square meters. More than 20 parallel forums and supporting activities will be set up. More than 240 speakers in various fields will be gathered at the expo. It is expected that the number of participants will exceed 160,000.

This year's Expo highlighted three aspects: deepening international exchanges and cooperation, promoting innovation of the ice and snow industry and holding a mass ice and snow carnival.

Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association Gao Yunchao said that, with the preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the ice and snow industry and winter sports industry saw unprecedented opportunities for development.

"The purpose of holding the Winter Expo is to better enhance the public's attention, support and participation in winter sports, and to build a platform for communication and cooperation between domestic and foreign winter sports industries," Gao said.

"With such a platform, we can better communicate with international sports, bring their better experience to China, and improve the level of our winter sports development," he added.

This year is the "China-Finland Winter Sports Year," and Finland will be the Expo's guest of honor. Ambassador of Finland to China, Jarno Syrjala, said some enterprises from Finland have already started cooperation with Chinese companies in areas like building ice rinks. They will bring high-end products and seek further cooperation at the event.