Background Information of CISMEF and Co-host Mechanism

On September 22-25, 2011, Thailand was invited as the co-host of the 8th CISMEF and Russia as the official guest country. Then Thailand Industry Minister Wannarat Channukul and then Russia Industry and Trade Minister Igor headed high-level delegations to the event.

On September 22-25, 2012, the 9th CISMEF invited Ecuador and Vietnam as the co-hosts. Mr. Juan Francisco Ballen, Vice Minister of Production and Employment of Ecuador and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Bien, Vice Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam headed their government and business delegations to CISMEF.

The 9th CISMEF saw 2,472 SME exhibitors from 35 countries and regions, with 5,000 international standard booths. The 448 overseas SMEs took 1,000 booths with 20,000 square meters. The 9th CISMEF held 17 matchmaking events for SMEs, such as Workshop on Promoting Investment and Trade with Vietnam Bến Tre Province, and Ecuador Promotion Meeting, etc.

More than 5,000 Chinese and overseas business people and over 3,200 enterprises were invited to the SME matchmaking activity. On September 25-28, 2013, China invited co-host country Indonesia and co-host organization UNOSSC to co-host the 10th CISMEF. Indonesia took 2,178 square meters of exhibition space and more than 50 enterprises will exhibit in the event, which are specialized in the fields of furniture, clothing, jewelry, artifacts, consumer goods for life and food, etc.

UNOSSC will mobilize 74 enterprises from Uganda, Thailand, Japan, Zambia, Nigeria and Kenya to exhibit or participate in the event, which will take 1,000 square meters space and will come from such industries as artifacts, chemicals, jewelry, clothing, food and LED lighting, etc. On October 11-14, 2014, Mexico worked as the co-host of 11th CISMEF. Director-General Enrique Jacob Roca (Vice Minister level) headed a business delegation with more than 400 members coming from 177 enterprises specialized in agriculture, food, drinks, textile, medical products, machinery manufacturing, equipment, leather products, chemical plastics and auto parts and components.

Besides, 5 Central Government departments, 8 state governments and 4 associations had more than 500 booths totaling 10,000 square meters to exhibit featured products such as agricultural products and tequila, etc. On October 10-13, 2015, Malaysia was the co-host country of 12th CISMEF. Ms. Noraini, Chairman of Malaysia Foreign Trade Development Council, headed the government delegation and 150 SMEs to the event, which took nearly 3,000 square meters of exhibition space. It was the fourth ASEAN co-host country of CISMEF after Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The exhibitors came from food, clothing, consumer goods for life, service and medicine, etc., which not only include food and consumer goods for life made with ancient techniques, but also include clothing and medical service produced by using ancient methods, and clothing and medicines that combine modern techs and environment-friendly philosophy. At the same time, Malaysia Exhibition Area also established Food Street to provide Malaysia snacks so as to promote featured cuisine culture of the country.

On October 10-27, 2016, the 13th CISMEF, co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, State Administration for Industry and Commerce of China, Guangdong Provincial People’s Government, the Ministry of Commerce of Cote d'Ivoire and MSME of India, was held in Guangzhou successfully in three stages. It was the first time for CISMEF to be co-hosted by an African country like Cote d'Ivoire and by a BRICS country India that helped promote exchanges and cooperation between SMEs in China and their counterparts in Africa while enriching contents of economic and trade cooperation with BRICS countries.

2,700 enterprises from 31 countries and regions including China exhibited in the event, taking 4,510 booths totaling 100,000 square meters of exhibition space. 185,000 people from 48 countries and regions visited, talked business or purchased at the event, including 46,000 visits made by buyers. Till that year, co-host countries of CISMEF had come from Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa and America. It also had the largest number of visiting government delegations from other countries.

In total, 11 countries sent their government delegations to the 13th CISMEF. The co-host countries Cote d'Ivoire and India sent ministers to head delegations to the event. Besides, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, Bulgaria and Russia also sent their government delegations to it. Consul-generals of all countries in Guangzhou were invited to the CISMEF.

For the first time, the 13th CISMEF held International industrial cooperation and investment matchmaking activity. It also worked with Bank of China to build a new platform of financial support for cooperation between SMEs of China and other overseas counterparts. 352 enterprises from 15 countries and regions and 459 SMEs of China were present at nearly 1,000 one-to-one and face-to-face business talks, which reached 162 cooperation intentions.