East China Fair gets ready for business

This year's East China Import & Export Commodity Fair will make greater efforts to attract exhibitors and investors, open up new ways of thinking and promote regional cooperation and links, organizers say.

The 28th East China Fair, as the expo is better known, will be held on March 1-4 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, with an exhibition area of 125,000 square meters and 6,580 standard booths.

The duration of the fair has been shortened from the previous 5 days to 4 days after surveys revealed that exhibitors at the previous two edition of the fair believed a 4-day session was enough for communication with customers and improving the efficiency of placing orders, organizers said in a press release.

With new opportunities and challenges in foreign trade development in 2018, the ECF has tried to attract exhibitors and investors by using new media to promote the fair.

Information regarding the fair has been spread on international websites, including search engines Google, Bing and Yandex, social media Facebook and LinkedIn, and specialized platforms like Expo Promoter, Trade India and 10 Times.

Also, targeted invitations for the fair — which will showcase products like garments, home textiles, consumer goods, and art deco gifts — have been sent to 600 overseas 'high quality' buyers, among which more than 50 percent are from Europe and the United States, organizers revealed.

Meanwhile, the ECF — the largest regional trade fair in China — is facilitating business talks pertaining to transactions, investment and various kinds of cooperation, according to fair officials.

The fair is supported by the Ministry of Commerce and is co-sponsored by nine provinces and cities, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces as well as Shanghai, Nanjing and Ningbo cities.

The 27th ECF held last year saw 21,433 business visitors from 117 countries and regions as well as 14,000 of their Chinese counterparts, with trade volume amounting to about US$39.75 billion.