Global focus on high-tech fair ( 2003-06-30 07:40) (China Daily)
Leading players from around the globe are set to gather at China's biggest
high-tech fair this autumn.
"We hope we can ink the same amount of deals as last year or even more,
although China was hit seriously by the SARS epidemic,'' said Li Hongzhong,
acting mayor Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, and director of the
organizing committee of the Fifth China High-Tech Fair (CHTF).
Li told a press conference on Friday that the biggest high-tech fair in China
will be held in the special economic zone from October 12 to 17 as scheduled.
The confirmation comes as the Chinese mainland was removed from the travel
advisory and SARS infected area list by the World Health Organization.
The disease caused transactions at China's biggest trade fair -- the Chinese
Export Commodities Fair held in April in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong
Province, to nosedive to just US$4.42 billion from the previous year's US$16.85
billion.
Contracts worth US$12.16 billion were sealed at the Fourth China High-Tech
Fair last year.
According to Li, nine countries and the European Union have decided to send
official delegations to the fair and South Korea, Britain and China's Taiwan
Province will organize information-technology delegations.
Almost all leading stock exchanges are also expected to be there to promote
overseas listings of Chinese high-tech firms.
Ministers of science from Britain and Egypt and the managing director of
Lehman Brothers are scheduled to deliver speeches to the fair's high-tech forum.
This year's exhibition will focus on three areas: Information technology,
bio-technology, and mechanical and electrical, new energy and new material
technology.
Wei Jianguo, vice-minister of commerce, envisages that large-scale trade
fairs such as CHTF will help the country make up losses in foreign trade
following the SARS outbreak from April onwards.
Since last year, the high-tech sector has become the second largest export
category, one which accounted for a fifth of the country's total US$339 billion
exports in 2002.
Figures from the Ministry of Commerce revealed that in the first five months,
high-tech exports rose by 55 per cent year-on-year to US$35.75 billion,
contributing 23 per cent of China's total exports.