Veterans and new-comers flock to Nanjing

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By Song Hongmei and Hu Yang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-21 16:01

Chen Yunlin (right), director of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and Wang Chih-Kang, chairman of the Taipei World Trade Center inaugurate the 2009 China (Nanjing) Economic and Trade Fair.

Although citizens were caught off-guard by the heavy rain, this did not spoil the excitement those who had come to attend the Taiwan Trade Fair from Sept 17-20 held in Nanjing, the historic capital city of Jiangsu province in east China.

The fair, which aimed to promote goods from Taiwan and accelerate cross-Straits trade, is the major event for the 20th Nanjing Golden Autumn Economic and Trade Fair, which closed over the weekend.

The economic and trade fair, one of the most influential trade platforms in Jiangsu, serves as a catalyst for Nanjing's economic development: Over 60 percent of the foreign-investment enterprises and more than 80 percent of foreign investment in Nanjing were the result of the fair's efforts.

Moreover, of all the foreign-invested projects which are over $10 million, more than 90 percent is linked with the fair.

Every year the economic and trade fair has a different theme, which indicates the focus of the local economic development in the coming years.

This year, the economic and trade fair was dedicated to creating closer ties between Taiwan businesspeople and their counterparts on the mainland.

"The Taiwan trade fair, co-organized by the Nanjing municipal government and the Taipei World Trade Center for the first time, is the largest ever trade fair of Taiwanese goods held outside Taiwan Province," said Wang Chih-Kang, board chairman of the event's organizer on the Taiwan side.

The total exhibition area for Taiwanese goods covered 38,000 sq m, with nearly 1,900 exhibition booths. The exhibition will last from Sept 17 to 20.

"Because of historical reasons, many Taiwanese are quite familiar with Nanjing," said Lin Wenyi, vice-chairman of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of Kuomintang (KMT), is situated at the foot of the Purple Mountain in Nanjing.

The mausoleum has become a must-see destination for all visitors in Nanjing, especially those from Taiwan.

Zhao Xiaojiang, deputy mayor of Nanjing, told China Daily that "Nanjing is one of the favorite destinations for Taiwan businessmen. For this reason organizers aim to develop the Taiwan trade fair into a regular large-scale event in the city."

Over 20 heavyweights from Taiwan's business world came to Nanjing with Wang. Enterprises behind these high-level managers and councilors contribute two-thirds of Taiwan's GDP, according to Wang.

"The fair is not only a platform for selling products, but a platform for cultural exchange," said Wang. He also expressed the hope that this fair will have long-lasting good effect.

"In addition to historic reasons, Nanjing and Taiwan, with their complementary economies, are committed to win-win cooperation amid the international financial crisis, and their economic and trade cooperation enjoys great potential," said Zhao.

"The Chinese mainland is an important market in the world, in terms of both scale and influence. As a native of Taiwan, I believe the two sides of the Straits should work together to cope with the economic crisis," Lin added.

More than 4,000 Taiwan businessmen from 750 enterprises attended the fair, among them 27 percent are mainland-based, according to Zhu.

They brought more than 30,000 kinds of products to the fair, involving fields ranging from electronics to food and beverage products.

Diverse activities

Besides exhibiting goods, various activities were also held through the event to help the participants seal more deals, Taiwan businessmen symposium and procurement fair included.

Want Want Group, a company specializing in the development and production of snack foods, garnered a lot of attention. Unlike many Taiwan companies who brought their products to the mainland for the first time, Want Want has been long established here.

Entering the mainland in 1992, now it has 130 plants in all mainland provinces except Jilin and Hainan and all autonomous regions except Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

Mitchell Hsieh, general manager of Want Want confectionery division, told China Daily that their business has now expanded to include more than 53 countries and regions, but the mainland remains their major market, as well as their production and research base.

As a veteran who worked for Want Want for more than 10 years, Hsieh said he believes the snack giant's business really took off only after it came to the mainland.

Compared with Want Want, Daisuki company is so much younger, debuting its products — bags used for carrying pets around — in Taiwan in March of this year, but the pet rush in the mainland quickly attracted them across the straits for a larger market.

Chinese consumers spent 5.73 billion yuan on pet food and pet-care products in 2008, a 6.9 percent increase over the previous year, according to Euromonitor International. The global market research and consulting company predicted the market will rise 5.6 percent in 2009, to 6.05 billion yuan.

Besides the veteran enterprises, new-comers constitute a large part of the exhibitors, most of them having already a well-established business and market in Taiwan. This fair gives them a chance to tap into the market of 1.3 billion people on the mainland. As many of its consumers can afford the higher-quality commodities in which Taiwan enterprises are specialized.

Xu Canzhong, a general manager whose company makes meatless food items, came to test the market. He wants to find some agent to sell their products. "If the products sell well here, we plan to set up a plant immediately."

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