The 2010 Taiwan Brand Expo will begin Oct 28 at Jinan International Conference and Exhibition Center in Shandong province.

This year’s expo, which is to end Oct 31, is a well-known platform for economic and trade exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The 2010 expo will be co-hosted by Shandong’s provincial government and the Taipei World Trade Center and presented by Jinan’s municipal government and the Shandong Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

At a press conference on Oct 12, organizers said the expo will provide 1,050 booths for 450 enterprises to display products representing more than 20,000 categories. The exhibit area will be divided into nine small ones. The are the Taiwan Excellence Image area, clothing and decorations area, energy-saving and emission-reduction and technological products area, agricultural food area, franchise and chain stores area, sports and leisure area, taste of life area, cultural creativity area and medical and health care area.

Sponsors said one-third of the products that will be exhibited are specially designed for the markets of Shandong. This will be first time that Taiwan products will be showcased Shandong.

Organizers said more than 15 percent of the exhibits will focus on creative culture. Among the exhibitors are Liuli Living, Franz, the Palace Museum and nearly 30 exhibits from the America Corning Museum of Glass, the largest museum specializing in glass.

More than 3,000 major buyers will be invited to the expo, and some 50, 000 members of the public will be organized to attend the expo.

The first Taiwan Brand Expo was held in Nanjing in 2009, setting a record as the largest economic and trade activity held by Taiwan on the Chinese mainland with a trade volume of $770 million.

The annual Taiwan Brand Expo will be held in different mainland cities in future years.

By Audrey and Wang Fan