Canton fair closes with moderate growth in export deals
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-01 09:31 Liu Xu, head of the Foreign Economic Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission said that the fluctuation in China's export environment has prompted Chinese exporters to seek more export channels. "The appreciation of yuan against the US dollar has dealt a heavy blow to China's exports. So has it to the electric and information industry. However, the exporters that own intellectual property rights and self-developed brands of their products can still hold a big profit margin in exports," said Yu Heping, a marketing manager of China Delixi Group. The company is one of China's two largest private enterprises specializing in manufacturing electric power transmission and distribution appliances. He expected the company's export will grow by 40-50 percent this year. "Chinese export would undergo a period of "pang" under the combined effects of yuan's appreciation and the rising production cost and labor cost at home," said Lu Jianhua, assistant minister of commerce on Wednesday at the fair. However, he believed that Chinese exporters would improve innovations and product quality through the painful experience, which would bring credit to the reputation of China-made products. Based on export volumes at the fair, Guangdong Province is still the number one exporter in China, which sealed deals worth $10.09 billion. It was followed by eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Shanghai Municipality in sequence. This spring fair, the largest yet of its kind, offered 42,659 booths which were rented by 18,721 businesses, according to the spokesman. The fair, known as the "Canton fair" after the old name of Guangdong, was originally a biannual export-promotion event until the 101st session in the Spring of 2007, when its name was officially changed to the present name of the China Import and Export Fair from the Chinese Export Commodities Fair. The fair has become an international trade platform, which saw 514 foreign companies from 51 countries and regions demonstrate their commodities. Although the import business at the fair was still in small scale, it drew over 5,400 domestic companies, said the spokesman Xu. The fair did not give figures on the import deals. |
