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Expo center fuels cross-Straits cooperation

By Zhao Bian (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-27 14:13

Boosted by a strong economy powered by foreign investment, the exposition industry in Suzhou of Jiangsu province has developed rapidly in recent years.

The robust exposition industry has in turn offered a productive platform to promote Suzhou's business environment and facilitate the exchanges between local businesses and the global business community.

Due to its solid industrial foundation and excellent investment environment featuring preferential policies, quality government services and the many well-established development zones, Suzhou is one of the hot destinations in the Chinese mainland for overseas investors, especially those from China's Taiwan province.

Since the first Taiwanese-funded enterprise settled in Suzhou in 1984, the city experienced a steady growth of Taiwanese investment over more than two decades.

By the end of 2007, businesses from Taiwan had invested in more than 4,000 enterprises in Suzhou, with an accumulated funding of $20 billion.

Taiwanese investment in Suzhou now accounts for 20 percent of the total from the island to the mainland.

The investment has helped Suzhou establish a foreign-oriented industrial chain including electronic information, machinery, light industry, food and pharmaceuticals.

Through increasing globalization, local enterprises have promoted their products, services and brands to the overseas markets, laying a solid foundation for the development of the exposition industry, used by local businesses a bridge to the world.

As a leading company in the field, Suzhou International Expo Center shares the responsibility of promoting industry in the city.

In recent years, the company has found its own path to sustainable development and for the past three years has registered average annual growth of 40 percent.

Chen Gang, president of the center, said expositions should be all-round trade platforms for exhibitions, trade talks, information exchange and other service.

"The Suzhou International Exposition Center is not only a complex of buildings. And the functions of the center go beyond the limits of space," Chen said.

"As many events are held on the site in a specific period of time, our target is to break such limitations through organizing both on-site and online expositions," Chen explained.

To create added value for clients, Chen said the quality of the expositions has always been high on the company's agenda.

"We have set strict standards on the scale of events ," he said.

Cross-straits cooperation

Seeing Suzhou as the prime destination for Taiwanese investors, the center has given priority to hosting many events promoting cross-Straits cooperation.

The center has organized a number of exhibitions oriented to Taiwanese businesses, including the Suzhou Electronic Exposition and Suzhou Printed Circuit Board Exhibition.

Held for seven consecutive years, the electronic exposition has attracted almost all the renowned Taiwan enterprises in the field of information technology.

Because the expo embraces the entire supply chain, it is possible for various types of enterprise to find more business opportunities.

The event has helped draw more Taiwanese businesses to invest directly in Suzhou. Over 200 Taiwanese companies have invested in the city every year since the first exposition was held, almost 100 percent more than the number before the event.

Held four times, Suzhou Printed Circuit Board Exhibition has also become a famous exhibition brand in Suzhou.

With the widespread development of the printed circuit board industry in both Taiwan and Suzhou, the exhibition has attracted a large number of Taiwan businesses. Participants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and foreign countries account for as high as 70 percent.

Cooperation across the Taiwan Straits brings capital and technology from Taiwan to the huge mainland market.

The expo center enabled further cooperation through the Taiwan Chain Store and Franchise Business Center to bridge business exchanges across the Straits.

As a result, the first Cross-Straits Chain & Franchise Exhibition was held in the Suzhou center in 2005, attracting more than 80 franchised brands from Taiwan to participate, becoming the largest of its kind in China.

Another major event is the Cross-Straits Real Estate Developer Fair & Commercial Projects Expo, with its first session held from May 23 to 25, 2008, concurrent with the second Cross-Straits Chain & Franchise Exhibition.

Through the cooperation with Taipei World Trade Center, the biggest exposition center in Taiwan, the Suzhou center intends to hold more cross-Straits events with larger scale, higher level and wider influence.