On the afternoon of January 25, a CIIE roadshow was held in The Hague by the Department of Foreign Trade at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, CIIE Bureau and the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands. The event was attended by Jochum Haakma (Chairman of the Dutch Chinese Chamber of Commerce and former Director of Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion), Ronald Koster (Director for Asian Economy,The Hague City Government), Hans Kamphuis from Netherlands Enterprise Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Zhang Guosheng (Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands), and over 150 representatives of the Dutch business community.

In his speech, Counsellor Zhang said that heads of the two states had quite a number of meetings in the last few years. Under their proactive guidance, the bilateral relations between the two countries are better than ever. As an important economic and trade partner of the Netherlands, China organized a CIIE roadshow in the Netherlands to fully demonstrate its recognition of the economic and trade ties between the two countries. China is looking forward to the deepened partnership between top Dutch brands and the Chinese market for common reciprocaldevelopment.

Wang Dongtang, Deputy Director of Department of Foreign Trade, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said that CIIE would be the first national-level export expo in the world, an unprecedented event in the history of world trade, and a pioneering initiative for promoting world trade. By hosting CIIE, China can demonstrate its aspiration to open up its market to the world as it will be a major move of the Chinese government for enhancing world trade, facilitating free trade and building an open world economy, as well as an intrinsic imperative for implementing its new development philosophies, enhancing its supply-side structural reform and building a modernized economic system. This year, we will usher in the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. After burgeoning for four decades, the Chinese economy now boasts a huge market and consumer potential. In the next five years, China will import more than US$ 10 trillion worth of commodities and services.

Wang Dongtang also emphasized that China stood as a huge and open market. The development of China will prove to be an opportunity for the world, as well as an opportunity for the mutual development of Chinese and Dutch business communities. The first CIIE will be aligned with world-leading expos to offer all participating enterprises a new and better platform for business expansion to the Chinese market and international expansion and contribute to the coordinated growth of world trade and economy, reciprocal development and common prosperity.

Dutch business representatives said that, as China boast huge market potential, expansion to the Chinese market would prove to be of great significance to the Netherlands. They thanked the Chinese organizers for offering them such an excellent platform and said that they would strive to capitalize on this historic opportunity.

Before the roadshow came to a close, the team signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with GIA, a Dutch company. As CIIE’s organizer in the Netherlands, GIA plans to solicit a group of exhibitors that would occupy an exhibition area of 2,000 m2. Royal DSM (a leading nutrition and biochemical company in the Netherlands), Nutricia (an established Dutch dairy producer), Hyproca and many other enterprises have confirmed their participation so far. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Philips, FrieslandCampina and a few other Dutch companies have also expressed their intent to participate in the expo.

(Resources from shanghaiexpo.org.cn)