The Canton Fair is an important “dictionary” for interpreting China’s foreign trade, where there are both powerful words such as “window”, and infectious words such as “and”. The word “window” is a powerful real word, but it is also an infectious imaginary word, such as “and”. This article is a “lexicon” for you to peruse. Unfortunately, the modern Chinese real words and imaginary words are only divided into twelve categories, otherwise, it can be used to explain the Canton Fair.
1.Canton Fair, the window of China’s foreign trade
The Canton Fair is still one of the most attractive Chinese exhibition “business cards” to attract the eyes of customers from all over the world. Since 1957 to 1978, Canton Fair is the only window of foreign trade in China, and is still the largest, highest level, the most comprehensive range of commodities, the largest number of visitors, and the best comprehensive international trade event, which directly promotes the sustainable and stable development of China’s exports, plays an impressive and positive role in China’s opening-up strategy, and has become the barometer of China’s foreign trade exports. In addition, the two sessions of Canton Fair each year can bring Guangzhou more than 6 billion yuan of revenue. One important reason why the Canton Fair has always been dynamic is that it is constantly optimizing its management, improving its services, raising its level and improving its environment, always standing at the front of the reform of China’s economic system and foreign trade system, consolidating its advantages and establishing a good image. Over the years, the Canton Fair has been constantly adjusting, reforming and innovating in terms of the way it organizes its delegations, the structure of its products, the layout of its exhibitions and the time it exhibits. In particular, several major reforms in recent years have directly pushed the pace of Canton Fair forward.
2.The world explores business opportunities through this window; China goes to the world through this window
Canton Fair has played an increasingly important role in China’s economic participation in international cooperation and competition. For example, comprehensive is the strength and weakness of the Canton Fair. The international exhibition industry is gradually developing towards specialisation, such as clothing fairs, toy fairs, etc., with very clear purchasing directions, while the Canton Fair is not. For this reason, Canton Fair combines the advantages of comprehensiveness and specialisation to find a new and compromising path. After extensive market research, the final choice was to change the exhibition format — to divide the Canton Fair into two, each session is held in two phases. The 91st Canton Fair began to be held in phases, that is, drawing on the experience of international exhibition industry thematic classification, in accordance with international practice to adjust the product classification and exhibition area settings, one exhibition held in two phases. This approach is not only in line with national conditions and Chinese characteristics, but also in line with international practices and exhibition trends. In addition, through the exchange of space for time, it has solved the problem of insufficient booth space at Canton Fair and met the needs of more and more enterprises, which has won the approval of most exhibitors and buyers.
For the first time, the 94th Canton Fair set up a branch in the newly completed Guangzhou Pazhou New Hall for a trial run, which significantly expanded the area of the hall and the scale of exhibitors, enhancing the competitiveness of the Fair. The United Nations Development Programme also sent a delegation to the fair to hold a United Nations procurement briefing. Canton Fair has played and will continue to play its unique role as a window.
3.Canton Fair, linking China and the world
The adjustment comes from internal and external factors. From external factors, with the increase in the number of national trade fairs such as the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Fair and Xiamen 9-8 Investment Fair, as well as the rise of e-commerce and online trade, the Canton Fair has encountered challenges from both the real and virtual worlds, and must find new development opportunities in the midst of adjustment. From the internal factors, although no one has been able to compete with it in terms of scale so far, the Canton Fair can hardly rest on its laurels in terms of the quality of exhibitors, customers and transactions. For the Canton Fair, this is in fact a dilemma of ideal and reality. On the one hand, the Canton Fair deeply understand China’s national conditions and the minds of foreign businessmen: developed countries and we do business, including two points, one is the characteristics of products, the second is the
advantages of developing countries; and developing countries because of the advantages with us convergence, trade complementarity is poor, so to China is mostly looking for those compared with their own country has a price advantage of the product. In this way, the market demand is only tea, ceramics, grass and willow weaving, toys, shoes and textile goods, the added value of products and technology content are relatively low. On the other hand, the Canton Fair must be responsible for the word “China” in the “China Commodity Fair”, and must not only meet the needs of customers, but also focus on constantly optimising the structure of export commodities, improving the added value and grade of exhibitors and enterprises, and thus enriching the structure of existing customers. In addition to the quantity, the quality of the Canton Fair will reach a new level. It should be said that this is not only the request of the competent authorities to the Canton Fair, but also the need for the development of the Canton Fair itself. In order to achieve the combination of the above two, taking into account the realistic interests and long-term development, the organisers of the Canton Fair not only need to spend more effort and organise more resources, but also need to make constant self-adjustment. For this reason, the organisers often have to give up in order to win the future of Canton Fair and the role of “optimisation and guidance” in deciding the proportion of booths, prices and exhibition layout.
4.This is China’s window, but also the world’s stage
In this kind of subtle adjustment, the quality of Canton Fair is quietly changing. At the 94th Canton Fair, a businessman from California said he was coming to Canton Fair for the fourth time and felt that the most obvious change was that “the exhibition was getting more and more beautiful and the quality of the negotiators was getting better and better”. For this reason, he also pulled an old friend he has been working with for many years, the reason is “together to see the world at the Canton Fair ……”, this is the influence of adjustment.
5.there is no best, only better. Better is “the best”
The biggest advantage of Canton Fair is its name — “China Export Commodities Fair”. It has a long history, excellent reputation, clear positioning and comprehensive, and most of China’s export commodities can be found at the Canton Fair. And well-known domestic enterprises also regard participation in the Canton Fair as the best place to present and build their brands at home and abroad. This is the biggest “capital” that Canton Fair can continue to attract exhibitors and buyers. These advantages are difficult and incomparable for many non-standard, newly organized commodity exhibitions. Canton fair is not purely in the sense of exhibition, can not only pursue economic benefits, “all look to money”, can not engage in a hammer sale. Otherwise, the Canton Fair would not have such a long life and such a strong influence. The stalls in the Canton Fair hall, whether conspicuous, or remote, the rental price is the same. This is what makes the Canton Fair different from other exhibitions. At the same time, the best booths are given priority to famous, special and new products that are supported and encouraged by the state. This is purely for the sake of the overall situation and to optimize the structure of export products. Consolidate the advantages, catch up with the first-class, and continue to “climb” in response to the trend of exhibition economy.
6.The Canton Fair has always pursued innovation
China’s accession to the WTO for more than two years, import and export thresholds continue to lower, the sharp increase in export enterprises, the demand for Canton Fair booths instead of decreasing, and even led to “outside the hall” business people unexpected. The Ministry of Commerce asked the Canton Fair to adapt to the new situation and take a new step forward. This is the big topic. The task of the Canton Fair management is to refine the big topic: how to make the Canton Fair a platform for China’s foreign exchange, so that it is not only a window to promote exports, not only a platform for trade transactions, but also a big stage for international economic exchanges. Although the Canton Fair is a long-established event that has been running for decades by the inertia of the system, breaking through the traditional practices will inevitably cause shocks, but the Canton Fair still insists on keeping pace with the times, examining the situation, paying close attention to international trends, studying the trend of the exhibition economy, changing the management mechanism, introducing advanced experience, revitalizing the exhibition economy, aiming to catch up with the world’s first-class exhibitions, and sparing no efforts to promote the commercial exchanges between China and the international market.
Since 1957, the Canton Fair has turned 95 pages. History and reality are intertwined.
Ninety-five pages gives people a heavy feeling, but the Canton Fair is not stagnant. Most of the businessmen who come from all over the world in each session have gained a lot. A British businessman who has been attending the Canton Fair since 1991 said that in previous years when they came to Asia for exhibitions, they would normally spend a week in Korea, two days in Hong Kong and one day in mainland China, whereas now they are spending a week in mainland China, two days in Hong Kong and no visit to Korea. Another person from the Swedish Exhibition Centre, who had just attended the fair in the Philippines and Hong Kong, said that the Canton Fair was totally unexpected, saying that she had only wanted to stop by and see the fair, but had not expected to be able to buy “anything I wanted”. thing” to lament the scale and variety of the Canton Fair. The big river has water and the small river is full. Some statistics, during the Canton Fair, Guangzhou taxi drivers can increase the daily income of about 300 -500 yuan, the turnover of hotels and restaurants to higher than the usual 30%, the exhibition site near the various trade fairs should be born, in order to take advantage of the Canton Fair “100,000 merchants gathered” the east wind, these exhibitions and the Canton Fair session together, Every year, the organisers and exhibitors reap huge rewards; and the crowds in front of the main venue holding signs for “so-and-so language translation”, “quick printing of business cards” and “air ticket service” even form two long lines of more than ten metres at peak hours. The crowd of people in front of the main hall holding signs saying “so-and-so”, “quick printing of business cards” and “air ticket service” will form two long queues of more than ten meters at the peak, becoming a unique business landscape of the Canton Fair.
China’s stage, the world’s standard. The 95th China Export Commodities Fair, held in Guangzhou from today to the 30th, is a spectacular expansion, using both the Pazhou Complex and the Liuhua Road Complex, which, according to the statistical standards of the AUM A (German Exhibition Commission), has leapt to the third largest single-year fair in the world. The 95th Canton Fair was held simultaneously in two phases at both the Pazhou Complex and the Liu Hua Road Complex. Pazhou Complex after the 94th trial run, the 95th fully operational. The two exhibition halls of the Canton Fair two phases of the gross exhibition area of 540,000 square meters, the net exhibition area of 243,000 square meters, equivalent to 27,000 international standard booths, of which, the two phases of the Pazhou Complex each with 7,500 booths, the two phases of the Liu Hua Road Exhibition Hall each with 6,000 booths. The 95th Canton Fair has five major categories of products, namely industry, textiles and garments, food and medicine, gifts and consumer goods, with 35 exhibition areas. We have every reason to imagine what position the Canton Fair will have in the world exhibition industry when it turns to 100 pages. Although the actual stage of the Canton Fair is not large, but between the size, China’s foreign trade trend can be seen in the bottom.
7.Looking back, predicting the future
The Canton Fair of the past has left a glorious mark on us, while the Canton Fair of today is advancing with the times. This is the harmonious evolution of Canton Fair in two different periods of history and reality. People see the Canton Fair as a faithful witness to the development of China’s foreign trade. People engaged in foreign trade work said “not to have been to the Canton Fair is not engaged in foreign trade”, the competent departments are the spring and autumn of the Canton Fair as the year and the following year China’s foreign trade exports barometer to analyze, in order to timely adjustment of export measures. All this, all built on the basis of the Canton Fair’s “large volume of transactions, merchants” and its “national, comprehensive” and other characteristics. Since entering the new century, to “service foreign trade” as its mission of the Canton Fair, with the times, the pace of reform and innovation, the pace of fast, the intensity of the world’s attention. According to reports, the Canton Fair in 2001, the 90th celebration, 2002, the 91st phased reform, 2003, the 94th Pazhou new hall set up part of the exhibition area trial run, to the 95th again expanded, only from the exhibition scale, booths were achieved 8000, 15,600, 18,400 to 27,000 leap. This big step across, is the Canton Fair to adapt to China’s accession to the WTO, further integration into the world economy, the national economy continues to develop rapidly, especially the rapid growth of foreign trade situation is inevitable. In 2002, there were 60,000 domestic enterprises with foreign trade rights, but by the end of 2003, there were nearly 110,000, while the total number of domestic and foreign enterprises with import and export rights was over 300,000.
It is worth noting that the revision of the Foreign Trade Law has recently been adopted by the National People’s Congress. In the future, China’s foreign trade operations will accelerate the liberalization of the total number of export business entities will be further expanded, the structure will also be more diversified. Therefore, although the scale of the Canton Fair has expanded in recent years, but compared with the faster expansion of foreign trade enterprises and export market demand, the contradiction between the supply of booths and demand is still very prominent, and the desire of enterprises across the country to participate in the fair is very strong. At the same time, buyers have also requested the Canton Fair to continue to fully demonstrate the advantages of “one-stop sourcing” on the basis of the specialization of commodities in the exhibition area, so that buyers from more than 200 countries and regions in the world can realize the desire to “walk through all walks of life in one go”. It can be said that the modest expansion of the 95th Fair provides the possibility to further satisfy the wishes of exhibitors and buyers, and at the same time, lays a solid foundation for the Canton Fair to grow bigger and stronger, consolidate its status as “China’s No.1 Fair” and further expand its international influence.
8.Grasp the present, long-term vision.
The first spring after China’s accession to the WTO, people were surprised to find that the Canton Fair, which has always been a steady pace, was able to increase the pace of its own reform so quickly. The Canton Fair has been held in two phases and has leapt into the ranks of international exhibitions. If the Canton Fair has witnessed the rise of a great trading nation, now, for the sake of the ideals of a strong trading nation, it has chosen to launch a phased reform at its peak. Over the long years, although China’s main exports have shifted from primary products to industrial manufactured goods, they are still predominantly low-value products. As a natural reflection of China’s economy, the Canton Fair saw a variety of products spontaneously occupying the lower end of the market and attracting customers with low prices. As a result, the fair has formed a pattern of confrontation with internationally renowned professional fairs of the same kind, which are self-contained and peaceful. However, with the integration of the global economy and the formation of a new round of international division of labour, Chinese enterprises will not remain at the end of the global industrial chain forever, working for the world for a slimmer and slimmer profit. The Canton Fair has also moved into the middle and high level exhibition market accordingly, and it is only a matter of time before it meets the big international exhibitions.
Exploration, for better development. The long history of the Canton Fair has on the one hand brought the fame of women and children and businessmen from all over the world; at the same time, it has to carry some stagnation and maladjustment due to this long history. In the direction of the development of the exhibition, some industry insiders believe that the current trend of the international exhibition is the increasing degree of specialization, although the Canton Fair is a comprehensive exhibition, but if it does not pay attention to its professionalism in specific categories, but simply “big and comprehensive”, it can only stay in the “international big stalls “It is difficult to truly realise the strategy of quality. In addition, due to the significant increase in the proportion of exhibitors and businessmen, the area of the venue, the traffic in the city, the hotel services and even the resting places in the venue are all under tension. The above problems have been taken seriously by the organisers of the Canton Fair. The new pavilion is 50 years ahead of its time and will undoubtedly bring a new hardware guarantee to the fair. We are waiting to see what will happen.
The Canton Fair pays great attention to adopting various ways to actively expand the trade function of the fair, continuously strengthen the efforts to invite buyers and enhance the level of the fair. For example, the last Canton Fair, on the one hand, continued to invite multinational retail groups such as Auchan of France, QVC of the United States and Central Sourcing Corporation of the United States to make fixed purchases, and held a number of procurement briefings. At the same time, also invited the United Nations Development Programme and other United Nations agencies to hold a procurement briefing, to help more of our enterprises to enter the United Nations procurement channels. On the other hand, we further increased our efforts in e-commerce, enriching and improving the databases of the three major websites, namely “Canton Fair Online”, “Canton Fair Online” and “Canton Fair Online”. The fair will be held at the Canton Fair Online, the Canton Fair Online and the Canton Fair Online. Trial use of the new Pazhou Hall part of the exhibition hall, the overall operation of the normal, in the new hall to report a total of 4,175 buyers from 105 countries and regions, in addition to the new hall from the main hall to the total number of buyers reached more than 30,000 people. The total export turnover of goods exhibited at the new pavilion was US$540 million.
From the above figures, it can be seen that the exhibitors’ presence at the event was very impressive. The reason why they can have such a high enthusiasm to participate in the fair is also inseparable from the fact that the Canton Fair treats the exhibitors as their own family members. During the 94th Canton Fair, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Health, Guangdong Province and Guangzhou Municipality attached great importance to the health protection and security work of the fair, and took thorough and effective measures to create a safe and good environment for the smooth conduct of the fair, without the occurrence of infectious diseases and major food poisoning incidents, ensuring the health of all domestic and foreign participants. This kind of work is very effective.
The flow of water does not rot, and the household pivot is not worm-eaten. The Canton Fair is like the tinkling of water, full of vitality and vigour.
The Canton Fair was established to promote China’s exports and was created to develop the overseas market for Chinese products. As the longest, largest and most effective trade fair in China, today’s Canton Fair is vibrant and dynamic. After China’s accession to the WTO, the competition in the international and domestic exhibition industry has become increasingly fierce. For this reason, while striving to maintain its traditional characteristics, the Canton Fair is actively approaching international norms. While maintaining its brand of promoting “Chinese export commodities” to the world, it is also to a certain extent drawing on the rich experience gained from professional international fairs such as Frankfurt, Las Vegas, Milan and Munich. In addition, as the threshold for enterprises to engage in import and export continues to be lowered, the Canton Fair will also continue to adjust the qualification measures for exhibitors, allowing more production enterprises and research institutes to enter the Fair directly.
At the same time, the Canton Fair will also continue to adapt to the trend of economic globalization and the development of modern electronic commerce, the Canton Fair into a combination of commodity trading and electronic trading, the world has an important impact of high-grade, high-level modern commodity trading centre. According to the situation after the accession to the WTO, the Canton Fair will also make timely and corresponding adjustments in the arrangement and distribution of exhibitors. In the future, many enterprises are bound to get more trade opportunities. Through the dissemination of e-commerce information, the Canton Fair is striving to enable participants to find information on products and “paired” customers even after its closure, thus truly becoming an international trade event that transcends time and space, transcends geography, and is truly worthy of its name and never ends.
The reason why the Canton Fair can continue to achieve glory, is with the Ministry of Commerce and its predecessor, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and other departments of the strong organization and scientific deployment inseparable.
In accordance with the requirements, organization and deployment of the Ministry of Commerce on the Canton Fair’s e-commerce work. Canton Fair website “online Canton Fair”, China International Electronic Commerce Center “online Canton Fair”, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products “online mechanical and electrical Canton Fair” three Canton Fair The Canton Fair website “Online Canton Fair”, China International Electronic Commerce Centre “Online Canton Fair” and China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products “Online Canton Fair” are the three Canton Fair e-commerce platforms. The Canton Fair website has also opened up a special platform for multinational purchasing groups and international industrial and commercial groups to serve as a designated purchasing platform to facilitate large international buyers and Chinese suppliers by means of online negotiation and matching.
The numbers at this year’s Canton Fair say it all. The 95th Canton Fair has increased the number of booths appropriately while paying more attention to quality improvement. For the first time, branded products display cabinets were set up to strengthen the display of branded products, adding to the display of branded products and taking strong measures to ensure the implementation of the export strategy of “winning with quality”. After the appropriate expansion of the exhibition scale, this year’s Canton Fair on the classification of goods and exhibition area settings have been adjusted accordingly, a higher degree of specialization, in order to attract and facilitate more buyers to the meeting. The number of booths in 12 commodity zones exceeded 1,000, and the number of booths in the apparel zone reached 2,186, with an exhibition area equivalent to the current scale of medium-sized domestic exhibitions. As a result of the exhibition area, exhibition conditions and supporting facilities greatly improved, the 95th Canton Fair, the overall level of exhibition has been further enhanced. Pazhou exhibition area of 30% of the exhibition booths, Liu Hua Road exhibition hall 1-10 ground floor set up for the key exhibition area, booths are all special installation, special exhibition will reach a total area of 140,000 square meters.
9.How to register for the 133rd Canton Fair 2023
The Canton Fair today is moving into the future with confidence and strength. Registration for the 133rd Canton Fair is now underway for buyers and exhibitors. For more information, please contact us.
