The Fourth China Suzhou Electronics Manufacturing Expo (eMEX) begins today in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province. The four-day expo aims to be the top electronics exhibition in China in terms of scale and the number of multinational participants, including those from Taiwan.

There has been a rapid development of the global IT industry, and speedy growth of the information industry along the Yangtze River Delta.

The expo hopes to build on this by displaying products, and by providing information about exchanges, procurement, sales and cooperation between global IT enterprises, said Zhou Weiqiang, deputy mayor of Suzhou.

Zhou said the city aims to build the fair into a center to display the latest research and development results, manufacturing, technology and development trends.

Suzhou is the largest IT manufacturing and export center in China. During the first nine months of this year, the sales volume for IT products from the city exceeded US$30 billion, accounting for 10 percent of the nation's total.

In recent years, Suzhou Municipal Government has strengthened its development of the IT industry. Nearly 3,000 IT enterprises in the city have formed a strong IT product chain.

The expo is the top IT fair in the country for the following reasons:

It will have 502 participants and 1,500 exhibition stands, up 38.7 percent and 21.6 percent respectively. It is expected that about 60,000 professional participants and 60,000 ordinary people will attend the expo.

More multinationals are attracted to this fair than all other similar expositions in China.

The number of Taiwan-based enterprises is greater than at any other show on the mainland.

The amount of technology on display from large companies leads all other IT shows in China.

Big-name companies such as Cannon, Siemens, Phillips, Hitachi, Sharp, Epson and Samsung will participate in the event.

Wei Jianguo, vice minister at the Ministry of Commerce, said that the eMEX has become the most important electronics information exhibition for global IT manufacturers.

(China Daily October 19, 2005)