To boost economic and trade ties between China and Italy, the Sino-Italian Fair of Small and Medium Enterprises will be held in conjunction with the upcoming Third China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair (CISMEF).
The fair, which is sponsored by the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Ministry of International Trade and the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory, will be held on September 15-18 in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.
The fair, which is the biggest ever trade and economic event jointly organized by Guangdong Province and overseas countries, is also one of the most important events of the Italian Year in China this year.
The four-day fair will boast nearly 16,000 square metres at the 2C, 2D and 2E Hall at the Guangzhou (Pazhou) Exhibition and Convention Centre for Italian SMEs to display their products.
As a result, Italian SMEs will have more chances to seek business opportunities with their Chinese counterparts, who will also be present in an exhibition area of 80,000 square metres.
According to the organizing committee, there will be more than 5,000 Chinese enterprises at the fair.
Meanwhile, 788 Italian enterprises, the biggest ever number of overseas enterprises in the fair's history, have confirmed their participation, according to official sources.
These Italian enterprises are engaged in 15 sectors, including the service sector, agricultural products and processing, machinery, bank and finance, real estate, building materials, furniture, textiles and clothes, chemical products, energy, medical products, electrical products, auto industry, environmental protection, engineering, transportation, infrastructural facilities and aviation.
Last year, there were only 160 French enterprises when the Sino-French Small and Medium Enterprises Fair was held in conjunction with the CISMEF.
Features
At this year's fair, a total of 378 out of 788 Italian enterprises will showcase their products, of which 85 will have solo exhibitions.
On September 16, the exhibition hall 2E, which covers 4,000 square metres, will be used as a venue for a business-to-business (B2B) event.
The event will be jointly organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Industrial Association, the Italian Handicraft Association, the Italian Bank Association and the Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Office.
A total of 336 enterprises from Italy, which are engaged in various sectors such as trading, agriculture, machinery, fashion and textiles, will participate in the event, to seek further business opportunities with their Chinese counterparts, which are leading enterprises in several sectors in China.
In addition, 21 banks from Italy will also be present at the B2B meeting, to provide banking services for Italian enterprises, which have an interest in investing in China.
Besides the B2B meeting, Italian enterprises and business delegations will also participate in a series of seminars held in conjunction with the fair, sources with the organizing committee said.
A total of 55 scholars, government officials and business people from Italy will give speeches at the seminars, on topics such as innovation of SMEs and technology co-operation between China and Italy.
On the first day of the fair, more than 1,000 participants from Italy and China will be present at the Sino-Italian SMEs Forum, which is organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Bank Association and the Italian Industrial Association.
A number of leading government officials, including Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, will give speeches at the seminar.
The seminar involves several sectors, including machinery, agricultural products and processing, textiles, energy, environmental protection, high-tech, public service, logistics and tourism.
Closer ties
For a country whose economy heavily relies on foreign trade, Italy has seen fast development in trade and economic co-operation with China.
According to the Italian Statistics Bureau, trade volume between Italy and China reached about 18.7 billion euros (US$23.94 billion) with China last year.
Its import volume from China has also seen a rise in recent years, hitting about 14.1 billion euros (US$18 billion) last year, up 19.5 per cent compared with the previous year.
Italy has also become an important export partner for China in terms of the textile and clothes industry.
Guangdong, an economic powerhouse in South China, has also seen fast development in terms of trade and economic co-operation with Italy in recent years.
Last year, the export and import volume between Guangdong and Italy hit about US$4 billion, up 8.9 per cent over the previous year.
In addition, the trade volume between Guangdong and Italy reached US$2.64 billion from January to July this year, up 13.1 per cent from the same period last year, according to the Guangdong Provincial Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Office.
The number of direct investment projects from Italian enterprises to Guangdong hit 166 from 1979 to 2005, with contract volumes reaching US$274 million, statistics from the office said.
Italy signed 36 investment projects with Guangdong last year, with a contractual value of about US$31.2 million and an actual utilized volume of US$49.91 million.
Italy also signed a total of 16 investment projects with Guangdong from January to July this year, with contract values hitting US$47.23 million and an actual utilized value of US$15.32 million, up 129.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively, compared with the same period last year.
