CFTC Working Group Promotes Canton Fair in UK

From Sept 20-21 and 24-25, China Foreign Trade Centre working group promoted Canton Fair in Edinburgh and London UK through organizing promotion conference, meeting with chambers of commerce and industrial organizations, and visiting chain department stores and wholesalers. The events enhanced mutually beneficial cooperation with the British business community, expanded Canton Fair’s influence and achieved positive results.

The working group successfully held Canton Fair promotion conference in London, which was attended by 70 local professionals from business circle. Yang Mi, Commercial Counselor of Chinese Embassy in the UK, Christopher Lethbridge, head of Creative Industries at China-Britain Business Council, and Kabul Kumar, President of ROCHINI, a loyal Canton Fair buyer, attended and delivered speeches. The mainstream media such as Xinhua News Agency, China News Service, China Radio International, European Times, and Golden Age New Media reported on the conference.

Canton Fair promotion conference in London

Ye Jijiang, Deputy Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre, spoke of the features of the mix of China UK bilateral trade. Based on the 126 Canton Fair’s highlights, he introduced in detail Canton Fair’s features and advantages as a platform for overall opening up to “buy from and sell to the globe” to British businessmen from key sectors. In his speech he encouraged British enterprises to grasp the valuable opportunities of Canton Fair, further win-win cooperation with Chinese companies and advance the quality growth of China UK trade relations.

Ye Jijiang made a speech at the Canton Fair promotion conference in London

Yang Mi pointed out that the cargo trade volume of the two countries last year crossed the threshold of 80 billion USD for the first time and will keep the momentum of high speed growth this year. Canton Fair is a window for China’s opening up and a bridge for the trade exchanges between China and the rest of the world. He encouraged British enterprises to make full use of Canton Fair’s platform, find Chinese partners, deepen business cooperation and share the big market cake. 

Yang Mi made a speech at the Canton Fair promotion conference in London

Mr. Lethbridge said that Canton Fair is a charming one-stop sourcing platform and represents the best of China’s manufacturing. British enterprises should attend and participate in the Fair to source high quality Chinese products and generate more business new ideas.

Lethbridge made a speech at the Canton Fair promotion conference in London

Kumar, President of ROCHINI, loyal Canton Fair buyer, shared his experience of attending the Fair at the event. ROCHINI attended the Fair since 1992 and sourced huge amount of building materials and machinery and electronic products. He said Canton Fair provides quality products and complete varieties, as well as efficient trade matchmaking services. It has become an important engine for the development of ROCHINI. At the same time, he had nice experiences here so that he called Canton Fair his second “home”.

Kumar shared his experiences of attending Canton Fair

The group also visited UK’s premium chain department stores John Lewis headquarters, especially the sections of textile and apparel, furniture and household appliances, gifts and food at its flagship store, to collect information of product quality and sales. They also met with Scotland’s large food wholesaler Dunn’s Food & Drinks and Glencrest to understand the sourcing and branding of large wholesalers and listen to their advices on attending overseas exhibitions, trade matchmaking, customer services, etc.

The group visited HQ of John Lewis

Ye Jijiang visited John Lewis flagship store

The working group met with China-Britain Business Council, Scottish Wholesale Association, Scottish Business Network and held in-depth talks on Canton Fair Global Partnership Program, Internet Promotion Campaign, participating in the International Pavilion, etc.

Ye Jijiang met with Ms. Julie Dunn, President of SWA

On further promoting Canton Fair in a specialized way and enhancing cooperation with industrial organizations and chambers of commerce, the working group and Yang Mi exchanged ideas in their meeting.