From humble beginnings, fair charts progress of a nation

From a modest exhibition held in a park in the 1950s, the China Import and Export Fair has developed into the country's largest trade event, charting China's growth along the way.

Every session is now packed, with 15,000 domestic exporters selected as exhibitors from some 600,000 from the whole nation.

Limited space has previously made it difficult for domestic exporters to secure a booth at the expo, also known as the Canton Fair.

But that situation is expected to ease as the new second-phase Pazhou complex opens its doors for the spring session, which starts today in the provincial capital of Guangzhou.

The Pazhou complex was first used for the 95th Canton Fair held in 2004. Now, the fair's two sessions in spring and autumn are held simultaneously in the Pazhou and Liuhua complexes.

The first-stage Pazhou complex is the largest exhibition center in Asia. It spans 430,000 sqm with a structural area of 395,000 sq m.

With 13 exhibition halls on the first and second floors, Pazhou's indoor exhibition space spans 130,000 sq m, while the outdoor area covers 22,000 sq m. It opened in 2002.

Background checks

The fair's organizing committee has said all exhibitors and journalists must produce documentation this year to prove they don't have a criminal record.

Overseas visitors are exempt from the background check, the organizers said.

"The supervisory body urged us to bring in this requirement to ensure safety during the event," Liang Yanfang, the organizing committee's press officer, said.

Exhibitors must get the documentation from police or provincial trade delegations, while journalists can get theirs from the police or media officials.

The 103rd Canton Fair is also expected to see more exhibitors from abroad and a larger space has been made available for foreign exhibits.

Import section

The import section debuted at the 101st session last spring. That brought 480 foreign companies from 57 countries and regions - including 17 from the world's least developed countries - wanting to find business opportunities in China.

The exhibition hall doubled in size to 20,000 sqm for the previous session. The inclusion of imports at the fair is part of government efforts to narrow the trade gap by increasing imports.

Export deals worth $37.45 billion were made at the last session of the fair in October, up 2.9 percent from last April and a 10 percent increase on the 100th session held a year ago.

Most of the deals involved mechanical and electrical products, with transactions reaching $15.62 billion, or 41.7 percent of the total, up 6.4 percent from the 101st session, Xu Bing, a spokesman for the fair, said.

Meanwhile, light industrial products saw deals of $12.18 billion, or 32.5 percent of the total.

EU business contracts from the last session totaled $12.05 billion, up 7.1 percent. US traders notched up $5.83 billion in deals, up 7.8 percent, while Middle Eastern businesses signed $4.42 billion worth of contracts, up 3.9 percent.

Delegations from coastal regions including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Shanghai won most of the contracts.

(China Daily 04/15/2008 page37)