Shanghai Trade Fair Attracts 56 Multinationals

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 26, 2002

Shanghai Trade Fair Attracts 56 Multinationals

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The four-day International Sourcing Conference, which opened in Shanghai Thursday, attracted 56 multinationals, including Carrefour, Metro, OBI, Kingfisher, General Electric, General Motors, Rockwell and Motorola.

The multinationals, including 24 retail giants and 32 industrial firms, have published information about 2,200 products in 33 categories which they plan to order.

The conference has drawn about 4,200 suppliers from 27 provincial areas on the Chinese mainland and from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Zhou Keren, vice-minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the gathering of so many multinationals indicates China is becoming an important global manufacturing and procuring center.

About 400 of the world's top 500 multinationals have set up plants in China, he added.

Chinese foreign trade officials said the potential for China to expand cooperation with these 500 companies is great since Chinese-made products account for only less than 2 percent of the 1.5 trillion US dollars worth of products purchased by the multinationals worldwide.

As part of the bid by Shanghai to turn the city into an international buying center, the city unveiled Shanghai International Merchandising Center a month ago with a virtual electronic market (website: www.chinasourcingcenter.com).

The center has a floor space of 190,000 sq.m and is open to dealers all year round.

Zhu Xiaoming, director of Foreign Trade and Economic Commission with the Shanghai municipal government, said the center and the conference were designed to serve as a transaction platform that will save both money and time for Chinese and overseas dealers.

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