Thanks to the high premium placed by Australia and China and support of various communities, the 7th China International SME Fair and China-Australia SME Fair (CISMEF) has successfully completed all its agendas. Themed with green, low carbon, creativity and innovation, this event is even closer to the needs of SMEs. The more professional match of enterprises, more targeted activities and more quality service have allowed us to achieve the expected result of ¡°Work Together to Meet Challenges, Join Hands for Common Development¡±. What is noteworthy are the substantial results achieved in transition and upgrade of SMEs. The main results achieved by this CISMEF can be summarized as follows:

1.New business opportunities provided to SMEs in promoting markets

Active participation of SMEs in the 7th CISMEF generated a lot of success. During the four days, 3,000 SMEs and 60 exhibition groups from China and 871 enterprises and 45 business groups from 35 foreign countries and regions conducted exhibition and negotiation with other interested businesses in this 100 thousand-sq m exhibition area that was equipped with 5,328 international standard booths which attracted 210,400 visits.

Not only vivid images and physical products were displayed during the event, there were also a number of product promotional activities. In addition to the investment climate and project promotions by provinces (municipalities and regions), the SME procurement briefing, one-to-one and multiple-to-multiple project promotions and technological exchanges, as well as one-to-one and point-to-point business negotiations, are also available. During the event, the promotional activities and collective exchange activities organized by the organizing committee and exhibitors numbered up to more than 50, with participation of nearly 8 thousand people, reaching the all-time high in the history of CISMEF. The one-to-one matching event organized by the secretariat of the organizing committee boasted participation of 1,644 senior and middle managers from 9 hundred enterprises of mainland China, which entered into business negotiations with 328 overseas enterprises. The matching ratio was 1 to 5, higher than the ratio of 1 to 3 required by the overseas enterprises, most of which showed their satisfaction with the result.

The tangible effective exhibition and exchange allowed more businesses and consumers to recognize technologies, products and brands of exhibitors and helped businesses lay a solid foundation for expanding their marketing channels and improving their ability to tap new markets. Both foreign and domestic SMEs have secured new business opportunities from this event.

Cooperative projects were secured during the 7th CISMEF, as evidenced by the four cooperative projects between enterprises of Hami City of Xinjiang and Guangdong with total value of RMB 406.7-million. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps signed 22 projects valued at RMB 14.5785 billion. The contact between Chinese leading building lighting manufacturer, AD Lighting, and Spanish renowned industrial design company, Stimulo, in the last CISMEF produced results one year later after one year of deepened interaction. During the 7th CISMEF, they signed cooperation agreements, whereby they will conduct in-depth cooperation in innovative development and industrial design of new lighting products.

2.New vision gained by SMEs for their transition

The 7th CISMEF organized a series of activities revolving around the theme of green, low carbon, creativity and innovation, which provided SMEs with new concepts, new models and new vision in terms of transition.

First, a one day and half-China-Australian SME Summit themed with Transition and Innovation Wins the Future was held, where government officials and reputable experts from both sides were invited to share their ideas about future economic and market trends as well as direction and trajectory of enterprise transition, supported by well-known entrepreneurs talking about their own experiences, successful cases and research results. The activity allowed SMEs to effectively gain from the theoretical guidance and practical experience, and it received warm welcome from them. Except the closed-door meeting in the last half day, the other two half-day events saw participation of nearly 3,000 visits.

Second, SME Information Summit was also held with a theme of promoting SME development through integration, innovation and information. The summit was focused on how to use advanced management software, e-commerce and internet to quickly respond to the rapidly changing market, reduce cost and improve management. A number of experts from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as well as a group of outstanding business representatives delivered insightful speeches, attracting more than 300 government officials and senior and middle management of SMEs.

Third, a series of seminars were held with a theme of creative design, environmental protection, energy conservation and sustainable development. Apart from the area allocated for creative industry, environmental protection and energy conservation exhibition, the 7th CISMEF also held a number of specialized activities that were supported by cases and experience, such as Creative Industry International Trade Forum, ¡°Kong Hong ¡¤ Originality ¡¤ Brand¡± Seminar, China-Australia Green Building and Eco-City Forum, and Forum on Post-Financial Crisis Sustainable Development for Township Enterprises, to discuss new path of SME development by means of green, low carbon, creativity and innovation.

Besides, the 7th CISMEF also held multiple trainings on resource allocation and business model innovation, industrial shift policy and investment promotion, etc, with the purpose of helping SMEs prosper by means of innovation and concentration.

3.New thinking for SMEs to accelerate their development

The common difficulty faced by SMEs is financing, which is also a big obstacle to SME development. To reduce financing difficulty for SMEs, and particularly to relax the financial constraints on SMEs¡¯ rapid development, the 7th CISMEF not only set up a financial service area with participation of 24 banks and 21 guarantee institutions to provide on-the-spot solutions and promotions to increase SMEs understanding of financial products, but also held equity financing forums and projects matching activities targeting common problems faced by excellent SMEs in the process of their development.

The equity financing forums and projects matching activities held during the CISMEF were warmly applauded by investors and SMEs, with participation of more than 60 investment funds, private equity funds and related service agencies as well as 116 partners and senior and middle managers. The forums discussed the questions that SMEs are commonly concerned about, such as how SMEs seek cooperation with capital in their start-up, how high-tech businesses capitalize on venture capital for accelerated development, how businesses develop into a time-honored ones by going public, and value added service brought to businesses by equity investment. The projects matching activities witnessed road shows by 12 enterprises selected from Guangdong, Shanghai, Heilongjiang and Hebei. The one-day activity saw more than 4 hundred senior and middle managers of SMEs coming.

In addition, the 7th CISMEF also provided such services as information network, software design, service outsourcing, enterprise training, technical support and policy consultation in the exhibition area. Many outstanding service agencies concentrated here, promoting their service and businesses, which provided SMEs with new thinking in their effort to solve financing difficulties.

4.New platform for cooperation and exchange between Chinese and Australian SMEs

As the co-host country of the 7th CISMEF, nearly 3 hundred businesses and other agencies as well as 8 business delegations came for exhibition, occupying a total area of 10 thousand sq k, one tenth of the total exhibition area, which is the largest area occupied by a co-host country in the history of CISMEF. It is reported by Australia that China has become its biggest trading partner, but of more than 45 thousand Australian export businesses, only 4.5 thousand have trading relations with China. This explains why Australia highly values this platform. The SMEs coming to the event were all representative enterprises and the number reached a record high in Australian overseas exhibition.

The Australian exhibition area featured a wealth of activities and was visited by a large number of people every day, who have gained a better understanding of Australia and its purpose of coming. For example, in the wine exhibition area, 60 Australian wine enterprises gathered together where exhibition was designed with an open and home style. Visitors could not only leisurely relish the wine, but also feel the history and culture behind it. Another example is the passionate fashion show, where domestic businessmen increased their appreciation of Australian fashion industry and brands.

To help Australian enterprises tap the Chinese market, the organizing committee not only matched Australian exhibiting enterprises with Chinese counterparts at a ratio of 1 to 3 so that they opened one-to-one negotiation, but also held specialized promotions so that Australian businessmen could understand Chinese policies and business models. For example, the Guangdong wine industry association organized a subject event discussing development opportunities of imported wine in China. Experts were invited to talk about China¡¯s regulatory and free trade policies on wine as well as development trends of wine operation models. More than 30 Australian business delegates and one hundred domestic wine distributors and investors participated in this activity. This activity was also very successful.

Also, Australia used the 7th CISMEF as an opportunity to hold 12 specialized promotional activities, such as construction design, HR management, business strategy, healthy food, wine and Australian beef. The exhibition and exchanges have laid a good basis for further cooperation between Chinese and Australian SMEs.

5.Innovative mechanism created for enhanced internationalization of CISMEF

What distinguish CISMEF from other expositions are its comprehensiveness, quality service, singularity, and internationalization. Since Premier Wen Jiabao proposed to turn China SME Fair into China International SME Fair, the CISMEF has been increasingly internationalized. First, from the 2nd CISMEF, we launched the co-host country mechanism; second, from the 5th CISMEF, all the Asia-Europe Meeting members collectively showed their presence, with ASEM SMEs Cooperation and Exchange Pavilion established. This CISMEF had more than one hundred international standard booths in the Europe pavilion. Then we have also installed the honorary co-host country mechanism. All the co-host countries in the history of CISMEF are entitled to the preferential treatment of honorary co-host country. During the 7th CISMEF, other co-host countries, France, Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain were all granted the title of CISMEF Honorary Co-Host Country Exhibitor.

6.New experience gained for improving specialization of CISMEF

To improve effectiveness of CISMEF and attract more professional visitors, the 7th CISMEF tried some new practices to enhance its specialization. First, division of the exhibition area was based on different sectors under the holistic planning. Under joint efforts of every province (region and municipality), concentration of domestic industries was significantly improved, which is not only instrumental to match between exhibitors and businesses, but also favorable to communication between upstream and downstream businesses of the same industrial chain. Second, booths were not allocated according to plan. For example, the products displayed in the Guangdong Brand Name and Quality Products Pavilion were selected through review for the first time, which resulted in exhibition of brand products picked from 11 cities had better efficacy. Third, new pavilions were built to meet exhibitor needs. For example, the creative industry pavilion mainly targeted design firms and animation companies. Better satisfaction of customer needs in establishment of pavilions would be more attractive to outstanding businesses within an industry. Fourth, industrial associations were given an enhanced role in this CISMEF, during which industrial associations were encouraged to hold industry-based promotional activities to provide more specialized information to exhibitors and better matched business opportunities.

In addition, under support of various social communities, the 7th CISMEF organized volunteer service teams to provide our clients with advisory service, information and security, etc. All this valuable experience will contribute significantly to future success of CISMEF.

Secretariat of the CISMEF Organizing Committee

September 18, 2010