Beijing's imports with countries in Western Asia topped 500 billion yuan in the period from January to September 2022, up by more than 50% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Beijing's imports and exports with ASEAN countries reached nearly 200 billion yuan.
Beijing Import and Export Online Fair (Western Asia & Southeast Asia) opened in Beijing. The event was hosted by the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau and ICBC Beijing Branch, and organized by CMEC International Exhibition Co., Ltd. and Trade Point Beijing of the World Trade Point Federation. As a follow-up to the Beijing Import and Export Online Fair (South America) held in the first half of this year, this meeting was themed "Committed to Developing Industrial Clusters and Professional Platforms", serving as a window for companies in Beijing to interact and do business with overseas purchasers.
The 7-day event attracted enterprises and organizations from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries to participate. Under themes of anti-epidemic materials and healthcare, high-tech products and intelligent equipment, and new materials and new lives, exhibitions were displayed on the online platform of CMEC called "Industrial Exhibition Cloud" and ICBC's Global Matchmaking Platform, where Beijing's creative and smart manufacturing products were unveiled. As a result, the fair has promoted cooperation on trade in goods between Beijing and countries in Western and Southeast Asia, pushing regional trade exchanges to a new level.
It was briefed that the two platforms, since their opening on October 18, have gathered over 120 Beijing companies and above 100 foreign businesses, with more than 2,600 views, 2,000 plus visitors and received hundreds of inquiries.
The fair included an opening ceremony and six promotional activities. The latter fell into two categories – country-specific ones for countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia and Indonesia, and sector-specific ones with enterprises and organizations from these countries, held in the forms of "cloud promotion" and "cloud matchmaking + cloud coordination". Through professional platforms, Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau introduced the city's policies to the said countries and enterprises; commercial counselors in China and leaders of industry associations and chambers of commerce attended the "cloud promotion" to elaborate on their countries' respective strengths in trade in goods; heads of subsidiaries of foreign enterprises in China demonstrated with their own experience how Beijing's policies helped promote their development; representatives of Chinese and foreign enterprises spoke and promoted their products, expressing cooperative intentions through "pre-matchmaking". Also, a number of themed and country-specific online matchmaking events were held to connect Beijing's enterprises and those from Western and Southeast Asia.
The fair is a new online platform for Beijing to intensify international economic and trade cooperation and go global. By helping enterprises vie for orders and make deals online at this special time, it enables cross-border economic and trade cooperation between Beijing's enterprises and those from Western and Southeast Asian countries, thus promoting a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows.
The Global Matchmaking Platform developed by ICBC is an all-in-one cross-border service provider for soliciting funds, talent and investment, as well as a smart ecosystem for global enterprises. By building an open online demand release platform and organizing online and offline cross-border matchmaking events, ICBC has satisfied the needs of recommended enterprises to deeply engage in the global supply chain. Since its rollout, the platform has attracted more than 70,000 enterprises from 59 countries and regions, covering over 30 sectors. The 160 plus cross-border matchmaking and promotional activities have contributed to more than 4,000 intended deals amounting to tens of billions of yuan.
The first 9 months of 2022 saw an import value of over 500 billion yuan between Beijing and countries in Western Asia, more than half as much as the previous year. The import and export between Beijing and ASEAN countries was also nearly 200 billion yuan, said a person in charge from the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau. Going forward, Beijing will seize opportunities presented by the development of the "two zones" to create a world-class business environment and open new ground for development by staying committed to open cooperation, institutional innovation, and liberalization and facilitation of trade, investment and talent flow.
(Reporter: Du Yan)
