Society

Exhibits grow Chengdu's post-quake economy

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-25 16:27

Three years ago, the devastating Wenchuan earthquake brought a great loss of life and devastated the economy of Sichuan province. Chengdu, the province's capital, decided to make a showcase of their city.

Yang Fan, president of Shuozi (Shanghai) Co, who has paid close attention to the development trend of Chengdu's thriving exhibition business, said the city began hosting exhibits a month after the earthquake.

"The exhibitions showed the outside world that Chengdu remains sound after the earthquake and that Chengdu residents are optimistic. They will inspire the people and promote the local economy, particularly the service sector, to help us recover and develop fast," said Chen Lin, director of the Chengdu Municipal Exhibition Bureau (CMEB).

Chen said the exhibits brought added value by stimulating other areas of the economy. "The internationally acknowledged pull effect of the exhibition sector is at about 1:9, which means when the exhibition sector creates 100 million yuan in direct incomes, it drives other sectors to yield 900 million yuan in additional income," he said.

Yang, who has led a publicity campaign to showcase Chengdu's exhibitions, said the strategy has made Chengdu more regionally competitive, too.

Exhibition Boom

The CMEB reported that Chengdu held 260 exhibitions in 2008, with an output value totaling 1.35 billion yuan. More than 1.1 million traveling exhibitors and buyers and more than 6 million guests came to Chengdu for exhibitions. The two groups spent an estimated 18 billion yuan.

Chengdu already has been sponsoring the West China Exhibition for 11 years, and that exhibition has been credited with convincing Intel and Foxconn to invest in the city.

At the 2010 China (Chengdu) New Energy International Summit and Exhibition, the city facilitated over 30 business talks and signing ceremonies for 13 projects valued at13.93 billion yuan.

In March each year, Chengdu begins its busy season for exhibitions and trade shows. The city has become a fixed site to host China's spring sugar and alcohol exhibition, China intangible cultural heritage festival and global auto forum each year.

This year, the city will host the largest exhibition and conference in China's medical health arena for Sinopharm, a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Corp and China's largest pharmaceutical company. Sinopharm is a member of Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest exhibition sponsor, and Reed has arranged all five upcoming exhibitions in Chengdu.

In 2010, Chengdu held 382 exhibitions in a total space of 1.9 million square meters and 3.45 million square meters of conference rooms. The shows attracted 80 million participants. The exhibitions added 27.29 billion yuan to the economy, including 3.24 billion yuan in direct investments. Trade agreements worth 288.07 billion yuan and investment contracts worth 885.42 billion yuan were signed.

Government Support

In 2010, Chengdu officially set up CMEB to take charge of the city's exhibition affairs, making it the first such government body in a deputy provincial city in the country. The establishment of CMEB became one of the top 10 news stories in the Chinese exhibitions sector in 2010.

The predecessor of CMEB was the Chengdu Trade Fair Office, established in 1987. The office was set up mainly for sponsoring the annual China Spring Sugar and Alcohol Exhibition.

"The national sugar and alcohol exhibition was a product of the planned economy. It was simply in the early stage of exhibitions," Chen of CMEB said. A major transformation took place in 2003 in the city's exhibition sector, he said.

"The municipal party committee and government proposed to cultivate Chengdu into a city with exhibitions attracting traders and audiences from all parts of the country and abroad. So, the trade fair office was renamed a municipal exhibition office," Chen said.

As an inland city, Chengdu must protect basic farmlands in the core Dujiangyan automatic flow irrigation areas and the natural environments in the upper reaches of Yangtze River. The city is prohibited from developing heavy industries. Thus, it was an "exhibition economy" that Chengdu since 2009 embraced as a way to grow its economy. Chen Lin said the biggest benefit of the renaming the city's former trade office is that it's easier to attract outside investments. "The previous trade fair office sounded like an interim agency and sounded less authoritative. Now we have business talks in the name of CMEB to make it more official. It also shows the municipal government pays high attention to the exhibitions sector," he said.

"We are not just satisfied with the direct volume of transactions from the exhibitions. We care about what they will bring about to Chengdu and its industrial development," Chen said.