Industrial forums being held at the 136th session of the China Import and Export Fair, popularly known as the Canton Fair, have delved into the latest industrial trends and overseas market dynamics.
The fair is running in three phases from Oct 15 to Nov 4 in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province.
One forum focusing on trends and market strategy of household items was held Friday during the second phase of the fair, which began on Wednesday. It brought together experts, representatives from overseas institutions and within the industry to discuss market trends, thus promoting exchanges in the industry and collaborative development.
"Taking advantage of the platform provided by the Canton Fair, today's forum offered a wider range of perspectives for the home decoration industry," said Ye Wenshi, a guest attending the industrial forum.
In addition to offering a platform for exchanges within industries, the fair also presents opportunities for exhibitors to better meet the their customers' demand through innovation.
"The fair allows us to meet more new customers who will inspire us to innovate our products, and we will update the design of our products after we understand the market trends," said Huang Sihua, an exhibitor.
Industrial forums at Canton Fair explore market trends
British businesses are maintaining their long-term optimism and commitment to China based on seasoned judgment on the market's development, said Peter Burnett, the Chief Executive Officer of the China-Britain Business Council.
Burnett, head of the UK's national business network promoting trade and investment with China, said that UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy's visit to China last week has helped restore business confidence that had been lacking due to limited government-to-government dialog.
"This visit is one that has been much anticipated for quite a few weeks, months, indeed years, although there's been a change of government of course in the United Kingdom," he said.
Burnett noted that businesses are resilient and self-sufficient, with a strong understanding of their markets and customers. And not a single member of the CBBC decided to pull out, Burnett stressed, highlighting a general optimistic outlook on the Chinese economy.
"CBBC members, they know the markets, they understand their customers, they are all very good at business strategy. And that has never really changed in China. But the missing piece for the last few years has been this government-to-government engagement, that G-to-G dialogue is really, really important because it restores that level of confidence. You need to have confidence, if you're an exporting or an investing business, you need to have confidence in both markets, and that confidence has really returned in the last -- not completely, but it is returning, I would say -- in the course of the last three months or so," Burnett said.
"Fundamentally, businesses will look after themselves, they know the markets, they know their customers. As I have spoken to CBBC membership, I have never, I have not heard any of them say 'we don't, we don't have confidence in the future of China's economy.' And I haven't heard one of them say 'we're thinking of pulling out'," Burnett said.
China's fiscal authorities have applied a range of policies this year aimed at expanding effective domestic demand. Regarding this, Burnett said that British companies are encouraged by such measures.
"We've seen interest rates cuts, we have seen support for the stock market, for banks, for real estate, for local government financing vehicles, to address some of these deflationary concerns and basically to bring confidence back into the consumer market, into the consumption market, the real estate market, the stock exchange market, and the investment market. We're encouraged certainly by these measures. The members of CBBC really don't have a problem with the long term trajectory of Chinese economy," he said.
British companies remain confident of Chinese economy: trade body chief
