This will be the country's second government-sponsored international procurement fair since the country entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) over one year ago.

Zhang Yanhua, a departmental official with the Chinese State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC), the organizer of the event, said the fair is expected to draw retailers from China and around the world.

Since participation in the fair is predicted to exceed that of the previous one, she noted, organizers are planning to provide 1,600 display booths for international retail chains and local suppliers.

A large number of Chinese department stores and franchises will also be invited to attend the fair, she said, adding that the fair's organizational work has been improved so as to offer better accessibility for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially those from mid-western China.

The First International Retail Group Procurement Fair was held in Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province in April last year. It attracted 34 international retail giants, including Walmart and Carrefour. More than 700 professional procurement agents from around the world made contacts and placed orders with over 1,100 Chinese suppliers.

Wang Beiying from the SETC said that, increasingly, international retail giants are shifting their procurement bases to China because of lower costs and high quality of its locally-manufactured products.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2003)