More than a quarter million professional buyers attended the 6th China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair (CISMEF) in Guangzhou by the time the four-day event concluded last Friday.
The event included 12,600 buyers from 55 foreign countries and regions and 3,935 exhibiting firms, of which 823 were from overseas, according to Lin Ying, secretary-general of the event's organizing committee.
"Many delegations reaped bumper harvests during the fair," the official said, citing business deals by delegations from Anhui, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, as well as the Xinjiang Construction Regiment, a large economic cooperative in the autonomous region.
The Anhui provincial delegation secured agreements totaling 7.5 billion yuan for 49 projects, while Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, which were all affected by the devastating earthquake last May, tallied 5.9 billion yuan for 22 projects and the Xinjiang Construction Regiment received commitments for 20 projects totaling 2.49 billion yuan.
He said that the fair also played a crucial role in helping SMEs raise funds.
Eighteen banks offered 184.56 billion yuan in credit to qualified exhibitors during the fair, while a series of seminars, publicity campaigns on the latest national and regional financial policies, products from financial institutions and solutions for SMEs gave exhibiting firms a better understanding of how to access credit from banks, Lin said.
In all, 30 banking institutions and 27 bonding companies set up 252 booths during the fair.
"The exhibitors were also stunned by the IT application solutions available on the spot that are suitable for SMEs to lower management costs and improve marketing and sales," he said.
IT solution providers had 10,000 sq m of the exhibition area, with influential IT companies China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom, as well as key B2B service providers, showing the latest technological solutions.
Solid Sino-Spanish ties
A strengthened Sino-Spanish relationship was also among the key achievements of the fair, the official said.
Lin said the organizing committee handpicked more than 400 domestic enterprises out of the some 2,000 applicants for one-to-one matchmaking meetings with Spanish counterparts.
"Our survey tells us that about 80 percent of the short-listed Chinese firms were satisfied with their dialog with their Spanish counterparts," Lin said. "Many reached initial agreements for further negotiations."
Several Spanish exhibitors told China Daily that they are also happy with one-to-one matchmaking talks, as well as other business opportunities at the fair.
More than 200 Spanish enterprises and business organizations including Telefonica of Spain and Real Madrid Football Club attended the fair.
They sought to partner with Chinese counterparts in biotech, machine tools, information technology, agricultural products - particularly olive oil and wine - energy conservation and environmental protection, tourism, franchising, construction and education.
This year's CISMEF, which opened last Tuesday, had 13 exhibition halls covering a combined area of over 120,000 sq m. The final number of 6,187 exhibition booths exceeded the 5,000 that planned.
The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the provincial government of Guangdong, with the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade of the Kingdom of Spain a co-host.