“Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Business Zone” assistscompanies inseizingopportunities
The “23rd Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (23rd MIF)” and the “2018 Portuguese-speaking Countries Products and Services Exhibition (Macau)” (2018 PLPEX) is geared towards international development trends this year, adding a number ofnew exhibition areas, helping enterprises to publicise theadvantages of their products and services, tapping new markets and fostering a pro-business environment.
This year’s MIF has rolled out the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Business Zone”. Besides the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute, commercial entities from the nine cities in the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong, as well as some of the associations/enterprises from Macao which provide services related to the Greater Bay Areawere invited to the zone, to introduce to visitors their services.
Section chief of the trade development section of the JiangmenBureau of Commerce Xie Fang commented that Jiangmen has a close relationship with Macao, and that the two placeshad reached many co-operation agreements through thepast editions of MIF. This year, Jiangmen took the opportunity of participation in the MIF to launch the “Jiangmen Business registration and foreign capital filing express service”, providing commercial establishment registration, registration modification and cancellation services to Hong Kong and Macao investor interested in investing in Jiangmen, allowing them to get their businesses registered in Jiangmen without physically visiting Jiangmen.
Mr Wei from western Congjiang County of GuizhouProvince, who engages in the alcoholic beverage business, also came to the Greater Bay Area Business Zone for consultation. He wishes to use the MIF platform to promote the products with ethniccharacteristics to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and to the marketsin Portuguese-speaking markets through Macao. He acknowledged the importance of the MIF as a platform and claimed that he hadmetmany potential business partners for futurecollaborations.
The newly launched gathered a great number of innovative and distinctive products and services. Mr Wang, an exhibitor ofthe Smart Zoneand director of a culture and creative company, was mainly promoting his parkreinvention project “Oasis Macao”, with a view to green and renovate the tiny spaces in Macao, such as narrow streets and alleysinto smart sports parks. The project is currently seeking partners.
At another stand in the animation and comic area, a lot of electronic sports equipment was displayed, attracting crowds ofyoungsters to try out some of the cutting-edge innovations. Mr Ding, who engages in the animation industry, said that he hopes to promote the new products with AR technology to Macao.Mr Ding was planning to open a store in Macao,a few local hotelshad approached him about partnership. He said that he wishes the MIF can continueoffering exhibition areas for intellectual products and build an international platform for exchanges.
Brazil Unmanned Shop Experience Zone (Brazil Center) to demonstrate featured product experience
This year’s PLPEX has set up the “Brazil Unmanned Shop Experience Zone (Brazil Center)” to showcase Brazilian assorted products with an innovative retailing approach, and promote Brazilian products through interactive experiences, attracting many visitors with its innovative exhibition mode.
According to Mr Chi, a businessman who works in the Brazilian trading industry, this operation mode had interested quite a few government officials and exhibitors andhis stands were crowded with enquiries.He concluded that he had reached his purpose of joining this exhibition. He planned to open the Brazil unmanned experience shops in Macao in the short future and then to open unmanned bonded stores for Brazilian products in the Mainland for the longterm. MrXue, businessman in the technology sectorfrom Zhuhai, showed a strong interest in unmanned stores after physically experiencing the innovations on-site and expressed his expectation to know more for reaching further collaborations.
Moreover, PLPEX exhibitor Miss Yang, the representative of a company from Changsha, told us that she mainly exhibitedfood from Portuguese-speaking countries, in a hope to look for distributors through PLPEX andintroducealcoholic beverages and food from Portuguese-speaking countries inMainland China.
Many exhibitors made consultation in that exhibition area. Mr Lin, an owner of jewelry products in Macao, said he wantedto deepen the understanding of the market in Portuguese-speaking countries and find business partners to import Brazilian jewelry and enter the market of Mainland China through Macao afterwards. He was also finding partners at the PLPEX to sell emeralds to Portuguese-speaking countries.
In addition totraditional payment methods like cash and credit card, electronic paymentssuch as Macao Pass, MPay and Alipay are also accepted in the SME exhibition zones atthe MIF.An exhibitor Mr Tang reportedthat Macao pass offers the digitalisedpayment servicesthat deal with small amounts. The Macao pass and Mpayhave been demonstrated in this exhibitionto populariseelectronic payment methods and seeking business partners.
The event is open to general public today has gathered many curious attendees. Local representative of the cultural and creative industry, MrO, said that his participation in the MIF over the years had boosted his product sales tremendously, especially with the electronic paymentsadded in this year. The electronic payment made it more convenient for the consumers and promoted the sales. Miss Chen, a tourist, said she was attractedbya great deal of merchandise in SMEs, where many products with characteristics of various regions had been displayed all together. She also enjoyed the convenienceoffered by electronic payment methods.
