From November 5th to 10th, the 9th China International Import Expo was held in Shanghai. Over the past six days, merchants from all over the world gathered at the "Four-Leaf Clover", and cutting-edge technologies, advanced manufacturing and innovation entities appeared on the same stage. For multinational companies, this is an annual window for concentrated display and negotiation; for many business departments and companies in Yangtze River Delta cities, the real weight of an CIIE is often slowly revealed outside the exhibition hall.
A story illustrates the weight of this “after meeting.” In May this year, Su Yanning, President and CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Greater China, led a team to Taizhou for inspection shortly after taking office. Less than half a year later, on November 5, the company signed a deepening cooperation agreement with Taizhou at the CIIE. The signing of the contract only took a short period of time during the exhibition, but behind it was more than ten years of exchanges and half a year of progress between the two parties. What the CIIE provides is exactly the occasion to realize this long-term accumulation at one point in time.
The person in charge of the commercial department of a certain place in the Yangtze River Delta frankly said that the bulk goods needed locally are long-term orders that last for several years. "It is difficult to immediately negotiate any large orders at a specific exhibition." But even if the cooperation is not finalized within 6 days, it does not mean that the exhibition has no value. On the contrary, it brings together merchants, projects and channels that were originally scattered around the world into the same city in a few days.
Therefore, where the spillover effects fall becomes a question worth asking. From Taizhou and Nantong to Yiwu and Quzhou, the answer given by cities in the Yangtze River Delta is that "overflow" is not just a paper order, but outside of the exhibition - the city proactively designs an undertaking method to extend the six-day exhibition period into a longer period of cooperation.
Seize time and sign projects
For Yang Haojun, deputy director of the Taizhou Municipal Commerce Bureau, the scarcest resource at the CIIE is “time.”
On November 5, the docking arrangements between Taizhou and multinational companies were extremely full. The first stop of Taizhou city leaders' tour of the CIIE was AstraZeneca. The company's global executive vice president was present. The time slot Taizhou secured was from 1:20 to 1:50 p.m. "We chatted until after 2 o'clock, and the next group of people will have to wait a little longer." Yang Haojun said that usually these foreign company executives have busy schedules and it is difficult to get time together, but at the CIIE, "as long as people are here, they can come one after another to meet."
The efficiency of this "concentrated meeting" ultimately falls on each specific project. On November 5, Boehringer Ingelheim signed a deepening cooperation agreement with Taizhou to invest 13.2 million euros in the construction of a poultry inactivated vaccine project. After the project is completed, it is designed to have an annual production capacity of 1.8 million vials of vaccine and an antigen production capacity of 3,000 liters. Annual sales revenue is expected to be approximately 250 million yuan.
13.2 million euros is not a large amount among the signing projects at the CIIE. But what Taizhou values is not this number, but a path that has been taken for more than ten years. Boehringer Ingelheim settled in Taizhou Pharmaceutical Industrial Park in 2012, and established Jiangsu Boehringer Ingelheim Biological Products Co., Ltd. in 2013 to produce PRRS vaccine for pigs. The cumulative investment has reached 120 million euros. The Taizhou factory obtained the GMP certificate in 2017 and entered commercial production in 2018. In 2025, it will have revenue of 450 million yuan and taxes of 64.02 million yuan. Yang Haojun told a detail: When this project was launched in China more than ten years ago, it was stuck due to issues such as restricted categories in the foreign investment guidance catalog. Taizhou took the initiative to strive for a breakthrough before it was launched. At that time, some people thought the track was too small and were not optimistic about it. However, after more than ten years of accumulation, the industry track is booming, and the implementation of new projects has injected new and strong momentum into the development of Taizhou's animal health industry. Signing the contract on-site at the CIIE also provided a high-standard occasion for both parties to "meet" and "witness", highlighting the importance of long-term cooperation.
The spillover effect of investment promotion is never a one-time deal. In Yang Haojun's view, this is the "cost-effectiveness" of the CIIE. "The opportunity cost is relatively low, and the possible opportunity benefits are very large." It takes about two and a half hours to drive from Shanghai to Taizhou. "After the CIIE, merchants are invited to visit Taizhou for inspection." Yang Haojun said.
Nantong is taking another path: making a list of needs and bringing them to the CIIE to "find things based on the pictures."
Nantong is "near the river, the sea, and Shanghai" and is home to industries such as shipbuilding and offshore engineering, high-end textiles, new materials, and new energy. The city's new energy installed capacity reaches 18.7 million kilowatts. How can the park improve its green electricity consumption capacity? How does the factory recycle waste heat and transform processes? How can companies establish a carbon management system and connect with international certifications? These are all specific questions. This year, Nantong brought these issues to the CIIE.
On November 6, at the ESG Cooperation Dialogue between Nantong City and multinational companies, four cooperation lists were released, covering zero-carbon parks, sustainable development of key enterprises, medical health and artificial intelligence. Nantong lists the technologies, services and application scenarios it needs and invites global partners to click "order" to find cooperation opportunities. On the day of the dialogue, the Nantong Municipal Commerce Bureau and 10 units including Siemens, Covestro, and Merck initiated the establishment of the "Yangtze Estuary Industrial Sustainable Development (ESG) Collaborative Innovation and Sharing Center", with the first batch of about 120 companies and institutions joining. Many dockings are not new this year, but with the help of the "overflow" of the CIIE, years of scattered exchanges have been solidified into permanent interfaces, from a meeting to creating a long-term channel.
Find channels and receive business
Projects depend on negotiation, and business depends on closing. For cities such as Yiwu and Quzhou, the CIIE paves the way for local companies to access markets and merchants.
The CIIE is in its ninth edition, and "coming there every year as promised" is itself accumulating something. Mr. Wang, who runs fine porcelain in Yiwu, told reporters: "Customers who have seen the exhibits this year may not place an order immediately. But when they come back the next year and find that the familiar merchants are still there, the business is more likely to move forward." An order sometimes spans two exhibitions from noticing the product, understanding the merchant to deciding to cooperate.
This year, the Mall Group organized more than ten businesses operating in Yiwu International Trade City with good sales performance to participate in the exhibition. Unlike individual consumers, corporate customers often need repeated contact from taking a fancy to a product to confirming the purchase. A meeting at the booth is just the beginning, and communication will continue later. Because of this, the benefits of participating in an exhibition are difficult to measure by how many goods are sold on site: a buyer who leaves his contact information or a negotiation with an undetermined outcome may become the starting point for subsequent business. Continuous appearances at the same exhibition also provide opportunities for both parties to get to know each other better.
It is worth mentioning that this year, Yiwu exhibitors also invited a number of online anchors to the site, brought exhibits into the live broadcast room, and started broadcasting at the CIIE. The traffic performance was better than usual. On one side are corporate customers who need to be contacted repeatedly, and on the other side are the attention gathered instantly through live broadcasts. The booth connects different buyers.
Quzhou clearly regards the CIIE as a platform for the two main lines of "bringing in" and "going out". "Enterprises cannot rely on themselves to work alone. They need to work together to go global. The government level is to create more platforms for enterprises." Yu Xuheng, deputy director of the Quzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau, said. In terms of going global, Quzhou uses the "industrial belt + brand, overseas warehouse + cross-border e-commerce" model and combines the more mature local special paper, electromechanical, and refrigerant industry clusters to help manufacturing companies go overseas.
The changes in the Suzhou trading group are more representative. According to the Suzhou Trading Group, since the CIIE was held, the number of registered exhibitors and professional visitors in Suzhou has continued to rise at a high level. The number of registered applicants and intended transaction amount have ranked first in Jiangsu Province for eight consecutive years. The composition of the trading group has shifted from being dominated by traditional traders to diversified participation in manufacturing, science and technology enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and cultural tourism. The demands of enterprises have shifted from "purely buying goods" to "trade + investment + innovation."
Wuxi also brought the cross-border co-branded products of Huishan clay figurines, the inlaid iron kettles of Wang Yuan Jiye Fang, and the on-site skill display of Yixing purple sand to the Jiangsu Humanities Exchange Exhibition Area. For the first time this year, technology companies appeared on the stage - Yuanye Technology's muscle outer armor and Wuxi Future Mirror's lyrics speaker series, on the same stage as "time-honored brands". The exhibition stand allows the city and products to be seen by more people, and procurement allows equipment and technology to flow back to the local area. Business is connected as soon as you enter and exit.
After its ninth session, the relationship between the CIIE and the cities in the Yangtze River Delta is no longer just about "participating" and "hosting." Different cities have different industrial structures and needs, but the common ground is clear: the cities in the Yangtze River Delta are not waiting for "spillover", but are actively designing mechanisms to absorb spillover effects, extending the six-day exhibition period into a longer cycle of projects, channels, and trust. The value of the CIIE also lies in the continuity beyond these exhibition halls.
Author: Liberation Daily Liu Chang Xu Xinyuan
