Fair opens doors for local and foreign businesses

GUANGZHOU: Local and foreign businesses are gearing up for the fifth China International Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Fair (CISMEF) and the China-South Korea Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Fair.

This year's CISMEF will be held at the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center from Sept 22 to 25.

The event is being organized by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the provincial government.

Important channel

The CISMEF, which began in 2004, has become an important channel for foreign SMEs to tap the mainland market and expand cooperation with Chinese counterparts.

More than 5,000 SMEs from a wide range of foreign countries and regions - including Thailand, South Korea, Italy, Germany, the United States, Mexico, the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan - will participate in this year's event.

They will display their latest products, technologies, projects and inventions in more than 6,000 standard booths that have a total exhibition space of more than 120,000 sq m. The event will be broken up into 14 specialty exhibition halls.

The halls will include: electronics and information; household appliances; machinery and equipment; textiles and garments; footwear; headgear; cases and bags; toys and crafts; food and medicine; furniture and lighting; and ceramics and building materials. There will also be zones for financial services, retail chains, South Korean and international companies and those from Hong Kong and Macao.

Global retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour and local retailers like Gome will also attend the event. They're expected to provide a sound platform for exhibiting SMEs to showcase their products.

A record number of exhibitors will attend this year's event. It will also be the biggest in terms of total exhibition space and number of pre-registered visitors, the organizing committee said.

South Korean interest

With the South Korean government co-hosting the event this year, it's seen as an important opportunity for South Korean SMEs to build a stronger presence in China.

South Korean exhibitors will highlight cosmetic products, environment-friendly technologies and hi-tech solutions.

Meanwhile, the organizing committee has scheduled a series of activities during the fair, including a forum for local SME representatives to meet with South Korean counterparts, an IT forum and seminars on marketing strategy, financing channels and the State's latest policies related to SMEs, as well as special training programs for SME executives.

The fourth session of the annual event, co-hosted by the Japanese government, saw more than 4,000 exhibitors, including over 1,000 overseas participants, last year.

SMEs contribute about 60 percent of the nation's GDP and about 50 percent of tax revenues, as well as over 75 percent of jobs and 65 percent of invention patents.

(China Daily 04/15/2008 page38)