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Double harvests on trade fair's first day

By Hu Yang (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-18 16:22

By the end of the first day of Nanjing's four-day Taiwan Trade Fair, visiting businessmen had collected a double harvest: valuable suggestions on tailoring their business strategies for the mainland and a satisfying number of sealed deals.

As large crowds poured into the main trade exhibition, two smaller activities were also held in the same venue: a symposium for Taiwan businessmen in Yangtze River Delta to discuss how should they adapt to the mainland market, and a one-on-one vendors' fair.

The board chairman of Taipei World Trade Center Wang Chih-Kang, who co-organized this year's Taiwan trade fair, addressed the symposium. He said the overall policy of expanding domestic demand, especially in rural areas, opens a great opportunity for Taiwan enterprises.

He said many Taiwan enterprises have long been focusing on exporting, now they can switch their attention to the domestic side: a market with 1.3 billion eager consumers is nowhere to be found but here.

Wang, an expert of mainland's economic policies, said Nanjing's geographic position makes it the ideal place for the trade fair: it's a part of the well-developed Yangtze River Delta while bordering the Henan and Anhui provinces, which have large rural areas and are potential big markets.

Special Coverage: China (Nanjing) Economic and Trade Fair Related readings:  Taiwan Trade Fair opens in Nanjing  Economic and trade fair opens in Nanjing  East China city to hold int'l trade fair  China (Nanjing) Economic and Trade Fair kicks off

During the symposium, Xu Mang, Director-General of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office's Economics Department, gave an overview of the central government's policies toward Taiwan enterprises.

He encouraged Taiwan merchants to do business in the mainland, and said the mainland will continue to send procurement delegations to Taiwan. He also suggested Taiwan businessman to carefully study the policies of the mainland to get a grasp of the current economic trend.

Lin Qingfa, President of Beijing Taiwan Business Association and head of Beijing Giant, talked about his view on tapping into the fresh mainland market by establishing brand. Giant, a bicycle brand from Taiwan, has long been a household name in the mainland.

He also emphasized that a single hand is not enough to expand the domestic market, instead, collective and systemic action is a better choice.

The one-on-one procurement fair, where vendors can approach buyers to promote their company, was held almost at the same time of the symposium.

The total value of the sealed deals at the procurement fair reached $26.5 million. Jingying shopping center and TrustMart, two department store chains, both nailed 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) deals.

The site of the procurement fair was much noisier than the symposium: 29 large enterprise buyers from mainland sat at their tables, with the Taiwan exhibitors taking turns to go in and choose the buyers they want to talk with. Every exhibitor had only 30 minutes altogether. 191 Taiwan exhibitors attended.

As the procurement fair approached its end, a representative surnamed Lan from Baijianh Co Ltd in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a local chain supermarket, told our reporter that they wanted to stock up on some varieties of snack foods, during the session they had talked with seven or eight exhibitors and were especially interested in several of them.

"The procurement fair was short, but we have found some possibilities, we will surely keep in touch with them after the fair," Lan said.