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SME Fair sets out to boost international brand-building

By Xiao Han (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-18 13:45

This filephoto shows business visitors and exhibitors pack the 2007 China Suzhou Electronic Information Expo. [China Daily]

More than 1,000 local and foreign enterprises are set to attend the Fourth China Suzhou International Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Fair. The event, held annually at the Suzhou International Expo Center, will run from May 23 to 25 this year.

The upcoming SME Fair is also an umbrella event for three specialist trade shows. This includes the 2009 China Jiangsu Equipment Manufacturing Supply Chain Expo (JEMEX). The JEMEX regularly attracts stands from more than 300 leading equipment makers from Jiangsu province, as well as a dozen large-scale equipment manufacturers from across China.

This year's event is also home to the China Retailers Convention and China Commercial Property Trade Fair. This will see some 500 well-known domestic and foreign retail businesses, as well as a number of commercial property developers, converging on Suzhou.

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The trio is completed by the China Suzhou International Franchise and Chainstore Exhibition, a showcase for over 300 chainstore brands from both Chinese and international suppliers.

As well as its tradeshow participants, this year's event will also highlight 100 of the winning projects from the National Science and Technology Awards. The inventors of the winning entries hope to secure development partners during the three-day event.

Suzhou, one of the leading industrial cities in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, is set at the very heart of the Yangtze River Delta zone, one of China's emerging economic powerhouses. The city has already successfully held three international SME fairs, each playing a positive role in promoting international exchange and cooperation among small and medium-sized enterprises.

Its most recent SME fair attracted more than 2,000 exhibitors from a wide range of industries and saw more than 60,000 business visitors touring its 60,000 sq m of exhibition space. The theme of the 2009 event is "Building international brands and creating value for enterprises" and will be looking at ways of helping SMEs access new domestic and international markets.

As well as promoting brands, the fair, organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce, is starting to emerge as one of China's most well known exhibition brands.

This year's event is co-sponsored by the China International Cooperation Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the Economic and Trade Commission of Jiangsu province, the SME Bureau of Jiangsu provincial government and the city government of Suzhou.