The annual “Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Fair” will kick off tomorrow at The Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo, with this year’s focus on “China chic”.
The “Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the 25th Anniversary of Macao’s Return to the Motherland•2024 Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Fair” (2024GMBPF), jointly organised by the Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province, will be held at the Cotai Expo Hall D of The Venetian Macao integrated resort from tomorrow through Sunday, with its first day only available to trade visitors.
The four-day fair consists of six exhibition areas, namely the Guangdong Branded Products Area, Macao Featured Products Area, The Belt and Road Area, Hotel Facilities & Services Area, Smart Devices Area and China Chic Area, covering 501 booths with a total area of over 12,000 square metres.
The fair organisers held a press conference at the exhibition venue yesterday afternoon, during which IPIM President Vincent U U Sang introduced the highlights of this year’s fair with “three firsts”.
‘Three firsts’
U pointed out that the 2024GMBPF is the first large-scale MICE event organised by the Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute after its restructuring from the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute: “The 2024GMBPF features a host of new arrangements with a view to elevating the effectiveness of ‘attracting businesses through exhibitions’, building on over a decade of achievements in ‘promoting sales with exhibitions’”.
This year, for the first time, the B2B (business-to-business) elements of the exhibition have been significantly increased, with hotel facilities and smart devices as the focus in this regard, U said, adding: “There are currently over 48,000 hotel guestrooms in Macau, with three-quarters in four-star hotels or higher, many of which have been in business for more than two decades and the guest rooms need renovating……Therefore, we have set up a Smart Devices Area at this year’s fair, covering catering, hospitality and lifestyle, so that visitors, including local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), can grasp the current development trend of smart devices and find suitable smart solutions for upgrading and restructuring, thereby facilitating their business development”.
In terms of the Hotel Facility and Service Exhibition Zone Tour and Business Matching Session, according to U, 55 hotels from Macau, Hengqin and Guangzhou and 45 exhibitors have so far signed up to participate in the matching sessions, with 58 pre-event matching sessions arranged.
U also highlighted in his speech the fair’s focus – “China chic”: “We have set up the China Chic Area covering 783 square metres to showcase Chinese culture through traditional clothing, traditional Chinese studies (國學) and tea ceremonies. We have also planned a string of on-site and off-site activities, including a photo session with up to 1,000 Chinese traditional clothing enthusiasts at various locations in Macau. Our goal is to create a festive atmosphere for the celebration of Chinese traditional clothing……and further encourage local enterprises to explore relevant business opportunities.”
According to yesterday’s press conference, a total of 453 exhibitors will participate in this year’s fair, of which 213 enterprises come from various provinces and cities in the mainland and 72 from Belt and Road (B&R) countries and regions.
Lin Shaorong, an analyst at the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province’s Foreign Trade Division, said in a speech that “this year’s exhibitors have signed up with great enthusiasm”, with a total of 201 Guangdong exhibitors, covering both general and key regional products. Among them, there are 142 first-time exhibitors, accounting for 70 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, U also said he expects the “largest ever” GMBPF to attract 100,000 visitors: “We hope to emphasise that the participating exhibitors not only focus on selling on-site but can also arrange business-to-business [deals] and invest here”.
2024 Guangdong & Macao Branded Products Fair” (2024GMBPF) organisers, including Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) President Vincent U U Sang (fifth from left) and Guangdong Province Commerce Department Foreign Trade Division Analyst at Level 2 Lin Shaorong (fourth from left), pose after yesterday’s press conference in the fair’s China-chic Area at the Cotai Expo Hall D of The Venetian Macao integrated resort. – Photo: Yuki Lei
