The 101st Canton Fair, standing as China's largest trade shows,
kicked off in south China's Guangdong Province on Sunday, for the first
time abandoning its former export bent and also catering to
imported commodities.
The massive trade exhibition, known for the past 50 years as the
Chinese Export Commodities Fair, has now expanded its remit and is
now called the Chinese Import and Export Commodities Fair.
Showing how serious it is to honor its priorities, the fair
occurs a month after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed in early
March that China would keep adjusting its foreign trade structure
and place more onus on imports.
For its inaugural appearance, the import section features the
products of 314 foreign companies from 36 countries and regions.
These cover many production fields from machinery, automobiles, IT
products, household electric appliances, building materials,
jewelry and food and agricultural products.
The fair, to run from April 15 to April 30, will welcome at
least 6,000 Chinese corporate buyers.
"By adding booths for foreign commodities, the Fair will
transmute to become an equal platform for both imports and
exports," said Gao Hucheng, vice-minister of Commerce, at the
fair.
Gao spoke of China's desire to see more imports of advanced
technology and energy-saving equipment and technology. It invites
all competent foreign enterprises to import major facilities and
equipment into China, saying that the Chinese market will be
enriched by such influx.
Lam Tin-fuk, executive director of the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council, announced that he was leading 40 Hong Kong
firms to attend the fair, adding that "the new import section shows
that China's foreign trade has shifted from mere export to balanced
development of both import and export.
"Having face to face conversation with potential Chinese buyers
helps me understand what they want, which is very useful for our
products to enter the Chinese market," said Paul Kidwell, general
manager of the UK Bathroom Corporation Ltd.
The fair was immediately given a touch of class by the display
of sleek cars by Volkswagen, Audi, Ferrari which took centre stage
in the 10,000-square-meter exhibition hall, drawing envious eyes
from the visitors.
Among the exhibits could be found displays of silverware and
garments from Nepal and arts and crafts from Mali, India and
Haiti.
Sebastian Kopulande, chairperson of the Zambia-China Business
Association, praised the fair "as an opportunity for Zambian
manufacturers to expand their business", adding that 37 companies
from his country are attending.
Naturally, with a much longer history, Chinese exporters still
dominate the fair with 14,430 exhibitors participating, 429 up on
the last fair.
The biannual event has a history of brisk trading with over
190,000 buyers from around the world signing deals worth US$34
billion at the last incarnation, revealed Xu Bing, deputy secretary
general of the fair, adding that the addition of imports will allow
China to increase the products sold nationwide, thus driving down
its trade surplus.
In 2006, China witnessed another strong economic year with
growth standing at just below 11 percent, mainly due to its exports
which rose by 27 percent to US$969 billion. In turn, this dynamited
China's trade surplus to a record US$178 billion, up 74 percent
from the previous record of US$102 billion set in 2005.
In rapid-fire efforts to lower the surplus, China last September
slashed export tax rebates, but the surplus stayed strong at
US$46.44 billion in the first quarter of this year. Effects became
evident in March when its monthly haul dropped to US$6.87 billion,
dipping below the US$10 billion mark for the first time since March
2006.
At a press conference ahead of Sunday's opening ceremony, Xu
Bing outlined that the fair would take measures to boost
intellectual property rights protection.
Xu announced that any exhibitor found to have infringed on any
designs or brands will receive an automatic two-year participation
ban, stretching to three years for those guilty of violating
intellectual property rights.
(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2007)