About five hundred thousand of international purchasing agents will receive the invitation letter to participate in the China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO hereinafter) to be held in October in 2007 in Nanning city, Guangxi province, China. The great effort has been made to have 100 thousand of international purchasing agents and over 10 thousand of Chinese purchasing agents attending the Expo in hope of broadening the exports in ASEAN countries.

The China-ASEAN Expo, co-sponsored by economic ministries of China and ASEAN countries, was conducted to enhance the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. This Expo has been held thrice with great success in Nanning city in China since 2004, and the 4th Expo will be held in October in 2007. During the Expo of this year, 3000 standard booths will be set up and the ratio of Chinese enterprises’booths to ASEAN countries’booths still remains high, that is, 2 to 1. This will facilitate ASEAN companies to exploit Chinese market by the Expo, and also offer Chinese companies many chances to expand import from ASEAN countries.
The principal concerned in China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat expressed that the arrangement and invitation for the purchasing agents is the central content in the job to make preparation for Expo. In order to bring about the win-win situation and raise the ASEAN enterprises’attendance rate, the Chinese purchasing agents will be invited as the leading participants so as to expand the import from ASEAN countries.

Firstly, the invitation letters should be sent to various entrepreneurs in different fields to raise the attendance rate. By means of market-oriented operation, it is necessary to establish cooperation with such institutes in possession of database with regard to CAEXPO as China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and other industrial associations in order to invite ASEAN purchasing agents to attend the CAEXPO. The enterprises from Japan, North Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand could be directly invited under the help of commercial organizations in these countries, and the Asian companies will be mainly invited to attend this Expo. The invitation for global enterprises could be sent on special website such as Global Sources, and the professional buyers could be attracted by holding national large-scale exhibition. The CAEXPO’s sponsor will place weight on the invitation for the buyers accumulated by the Expo in past three years and kept in China-ASEAN Secretariat’s database. Taking advantage of above-mentioned channels, the sponsor of Expo will try to send invitation letters to 500 thousand of purchasing agents all over the world, winning over 10 thousand buyers of them attending the exhibition.

Second, the sponsor’s attention will be focused on domestic purchasing agents to expand the import from ASEAN countries. Referring to the classification of the items to be displayed, the Secretariat of China-ASEAN Expo will join the Ministry of Commerce of P.R.C in organizing such corporations as provincial large-scale supermarket, department store and professional market at home to purchase commodity made in ASEAN countries. By collaboration with cities and province with huge volume of imports and exports in ASEAN countries, the Secretariat of China-ASEAN Expo will organize Chinese enterprises specializing in importing to participate in the Expo. Top six commercial associations in China which have become the supporting units of Expo will continually make arrangement to encourage their members to attending the Expo. The industries involved, including the following fields such as textile, food, medicine, light industry crafts, electronic machinery and chemical industry, are all of the scope of ASEAN industry areas to be displayed at this Expo.

In February in 2007, the Secretariat of China-ASEAN Expo issued the Bulletin for participating in 4th CAEXPO to stipulate the scale, pavilions setting up and main content of 4th CAEXPO. As for domestic situation, the Secretariat will further develop the cooperation with provincial ministries of commerce in China to select with earnest a bunch of typical products to be exhibited which are of super quality, have advantage over others and could meet the demand at home and abroad. Simultaneously, the collaboration with those special associations of commerce and well-known exhibition companies will contribute to attracting those popular industries.

Source: MINISTRY OF COMMERCE