Thanks to the great support of all parties, the 8^th CISMEF & China - Thailand SME Fair has successfully completed all its agendas. The central government and State Council have attached great importance to this session as Zhang Dejiang, member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier, attended the simple yet grand opening ceremony. He announced the opening of the 8^th CISMEF and took a pavilion tour with great interest. Thirty-one leaders at and above provincial level including Wang Yang, member of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPC and Huang Huahua, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and Governor of Guangdong Province, participated in the relevant events of the 8^th CISMEF. As the co-host country, Thailand¡¯s Minister of Industry, Mr. Wannarat Channukul attended the fair with a 400-strong delegation. And Russia, the official guest country, sent a 290-strong delegation led by vice Minister of Industry and Trade, Mr. Igor Karavaev, to participate in the session. 3,040 enterprises from 34 countries including China took part in the exhibition which has 5,073 booths and an exhibiting area of 100,000 square meters. The session attracted over 80,000 professional businessmen and 230,000 visitors. A series of workshops, exchanges and trainings aimed to improve the quality of SMEs were held. The 8^th CISMEF was fruitful, as it has provided a high-end interaction platform for SMEs from home and abroad to display, exchange, trade and cooperate with each other, offering innovative exhibitions, new business opportunities, new cooperation areas and new platform of exchange.

I.          Boosted International Exchanges and Cooperation among SMEs

The fair attracted 817 overseas enterprises from 33 countries and regions with its 1,512 booths and about 6,000 overseas merchants. Apart from Thailand Hall and Russian pavilion, the fair also set up ¡°Hall for ASEM SME Cooperation and Exchange, ¡°European Pavilion¡± and ¡°Honorary Co-host Country Pavilion¡±.

This session of CISMEF was co-hosted with Thailand, one of the ASEAN countries for the first time. Thailand organized 189 SMEs to exhibit many unique products never available in China before, with an exhibiting area of over 10,000 square meters. The exhibitors covered industries ranging from food, agricultural products, household products, digital products, software, tourism and health care.. With  ¡°green and sustainable lifestyle¡± as its theme, the fair showcased a variety of products reflecting Thailand¡¯s image and lifestyle. Merchants and visitors flooded to the Thailand Pavilion to know more about this country. They have not only found business and investment opportunities there but  enjoyed Thailand¡¯s culture, lifestyle and customs to their hearts content.

This session introduced the concept of official guest country for the first time. As the official guest country, Russia has sent for the exhibition 147 enterprises covering nine fields, namely. industry, service, hi-tech, energy-saving and environmental protection, machinery, construction, consumer goods, food and agricultural products. Russia¡¯s MOTOR Closed Joint-Stock Company producing innovative diagnosis equipment and Medlng Scientific Closed Joint-Stock Company producing unique artificial cardiac valve and prosthesis showcased their newest medical equipment, attracting many visitors.

The previous co-host countries including Japan, South Korea, Spain and Australia also had enterprises participating in this fair. The scale of Japan Pavilion was twice the size of last year. South Korean enterprises were very enthusiastic about the fair with an increase of 1/3 enterprises present.

The number of enterprises from Hong Kong nearly doubled, holding about 200 booths which showcased Hong Kong¡¯s manufacturing industry and brand promotion. Sixty-six booths were for enterprises from Macao to exhibit traditional food, and financial service products. One hundred and eight enterprises from Taiwan were present, the quality of which got improved compared with those of the 7^th CISMEF and 70% of which exhibited for the first time in China¡¯s mainland.

According to incomplete statistics, over 10,000 visitors participated in China-foreign enterprises business matchmaking activities. The exhibition has strengthened the cooperation and exchange of SMEs from both home and abroad in products and technology, providing more opportunities for consulting, trade and investment. This will promote the wider and deeper international cooperation and exchanges in the future. Sichuan had 75 enterprises, many of which have participated in the fair for many times. As they have benefited from increased orders thanks to the fair, they introduced more enterprises in the upper and lower reaches of the industry chain to the fair. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps signed 12 projects with the total investment of RMB 31.2 billion, registering the record of contract volume signed in CISMEF over the past 5 years. Song Zhiguo, Executive Secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, said CISMEF had become an important platform for the Corps to go ¡°global¡±. Incomplete statistics show that contract volume for 4 cities in Guangdong including Meizhou, Shanto, Jiangmen and Heyuan reached RMB 2.37 billion and RMB 1.9 billion for Shanxi, RMB 490 million for Xinjiang Autonomous Region and RMB 140 million for Sichuan. Thailand Minister of Industry was very satisfied with the 8^th CISMEF, regarding it as an honor for Thailand to be the first CISMEF co-host country  among the ASEAN countries. Deputy leader of US delegation, Madam Lait said that many business opportunities have been spotted on CISMEF.

II.       Assisted the Upgrading and Transformation of SMEs

The number of hi-tech SMEs participating in the 8^th CISMEF has increased remarkably. This session set up a special zone to demonstrate China enterprises¡¯ transformation and upgrading with an area of 40,000 square meters and 2,078 booths. It fully showcases the innovations of SMEs, achievements made in their transformation and upgrading as well as the status quo of private enterprises. Especially the Guangdong Private Enterprise Transformation and Upgrading pavilion epitomized the achievements made by the enterprises. Jiangsu had 72 enterprises for the exhibition with its 100 booths to show high-tech and emerging industries. It has become the second largest Chinese province in terms of the number of exhibitors, next to the host province, Guangdong. At the same time, this session of CISMEF also established exhibition for modern information and service industry with the theme of promoting transformation and upgrading of SMEs through informationization. Around 100 enterprises were present to exhibit the application and development of new technologies such as Internet of Things, cloud computing, mobile phone internet, and service outsourcing so as to provide non-stop information service for SMEs. The successful exhibition of modern information service industry and enterprises transformation and upgrading demonstration zone inspired enterprises, strengthened their resolution and confidence to accelerate their transformation and upgrading.

This session has taken a big step forward in organizing market-oriented and professional exhibition. The number of industries exhibited was reduced from nine to three, continuously promoting the model of competitive exhibition recruitment. At the same time, market mechanism has been given full play to attempt to hold exhibitions of catering equipment, food ingredients and raw materials, and building material and household products. As an oversea professional exhibition zone, the number of booths in International Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Exhibition how expanded to 258, taking up half the space of the exhibition hall. In order to provide more market opportunities, and strengthen cooperation with domestic businesses, exhibition companies and other intermediary organizations by using market-oriented methods, over 80,000 businesses have been invited. Thanks to the online service, online information service and e-business platform of CISMEF website, 38,000 visitors logged on to CISMEF website during the exhibition, a year-on-year   increase of 54%, of which over 1,850 new users registered through e-business platform, a year-on-year  increase of 40%.

III.     Discussed Hot Topics Concerning Promoting SME¡¯s Development

Apart from on-spot showcasing, trading, communication and cooperation events, this session of CISMEF also held 13 events such as forums, workshops, exchanges and trainings to improve the SMEs management capability. All the events attracted over 5,000 attendees. China SME Summit had 1 main forum and 3 sub-forums with the theme of ¡°innovation-boosted growth and service-driven transformation¡±, attracting over 2,000 attendees. On the Summit, Ministry of Industry and Information officially released ¡°Growth Plan for SMEs during the 12^th Five-Year Plan Period¡±, the first national plan specialized for the development of SMEs. The Plan aims to strengthen its innovation, create more jobs, optimize SMEs¡¯ structure, improve the ¡°specialty, sophistication, uniqueness and advancement¡± of enterprises and the industry cluster, upgrade corporate management and improve service system of SMEs. High-profile officials from China, Thailand and Russia participated in the summit and delivered key-note speeches. Experts, scholars and entrepreneurs from both home and abroad delivered theme speeches and discussed about the new ways to facilitate technical, management and service innovation especially the financial service innovation so as to address critical issues facing SMEs in their growth. The summit has provided a high-end exchange platform for SMEs¡¯ transformation, enlarged the horizon of the participant SMEs for its innovation and development and been well received by entrepreneurs and high-level management personnel of SMEs, which has got wide coverage of the media.

With the theme of ¡°cooperation with government to promote the internationalization of SMEs¡±, Asia and Europe SME Development Forum attracted relevant business agencies in Guangzhou from 48 members of ASEM countries to talk about hot issues relating to the development of Asia and Europe, and to explore international development routes and models, which has played an important role in setting up effective cooperation mechanism for SMEs and boosting the common development of Asia and Europe economy. SME Capital Market Operation & International Trade Seminar comprehensively interpreted laws and regulations of overseas capital market operation, typical cases of listed companies and skills of applying international trade risk control tools, which is welcomed by entrepreneurs.

IV.    Explored Effective Routes for Financial Service Innovation of SMEs

In response to the fund bottleneck restriction faced by SMEs, especially by the fast-growing small and micro-enterprises, this session of CISMEF has successfully organized ¡°Small Enterprises Financial Service Innovation - Dialogue between Banks and Enterprises¡± and ¡°Investment, Financing and High-growth Private Enterprises Development Forum¡±, apart from holding SME Equity and Financing Forum and Project Matchmaking,. Revolving around hot topics, such as¡°10 regulations by banks¡±, interpretation of new standard policies for SMEs classification, financial service innovation and lessening financing burdens for SMEs, attendees held in-depth discussions actively, aiming to create a good environment for financing service innovation.

SME Equity and Financing Forum and Project Matchmaking invited partners and executives from 50 most active domestic VCs and PEs, and directors in charge of stock exchanges and securities companies and other financial agencies to discuss about direct financing issues of SMEs. They have also done on-spot equity financing project matchmaking, which has brought direct financing opportunity of more than RMB 100 billion for SMEs. More than 800 participants were present, which is more than double of the expected. At the same time, the 8^th CISMEF set up financing service exhibition zone with 144 booths, of which the number of guarantee agency exhibition booths doubled that of the 7^th session to provide on-spot financial service interpretation and promotion, improve SME¡¯s understanding of financial products and services, and provide more opportunities for  SMEs to exchange and cooperate with the banking and guarantee industry.