Yiwu Exhibition industry:on the way to the world

On May 18,1995 the China Commodity City on Huangyuan Road was decorated brightly and crowded. A commodities fair-the first Yiwu Faircame into being. On that day,over 200,000 customers visited the ChinaCommodity City and products of some famous enterprises were on displaysuch as Hero pens,Premier cameras and products from China First Pencil.
　　With the rising fame of Yiwu market,over15,000 more booths were set up in Huangyuan market from 1991 to 1994.The commodities market of the fourth generation was called“commoditiesworld”at that time.However,officials in Yiwu Administration forIndustry and Commerce were quite clear that the “commodities world”wasstill in the shadow of“bargains”.Therefore,how to improve the brands ofcommodities was a problem preying upon the leaders of YiwuAdministration for Industry and Commerce and the commodities market.
　　At the end of 1994,the proposal of holding commodities fair wasapproved by Yiwu leaders,which aimed to improve the popularity of Yiwumarket and provide a platform for enterprises and agents. In thefollowing year,the fair was named “China Commodities Fair” and wasrescheduled to be in October,the peak season of the second half of theyear. Special exhibition zones as well as Taiwan and Hong Konghall,clothes hall,non-staple food hall and local hall were set up inthe second fair,which was moving forward to be a fair at the nationallevel.
　　With the development of commodities fair,the firstprofessional exhibition company - China Commodity City ExhibitionCompany - was established in 1997 and Yiwu exhibition industry finallystepped into the course of professional development.
　　Yiwu Fairreflects the development and change of Yiwu Market. Yiwu Fair came outof Zhejiang into the world in 14 years. So did Yiwu Market. Now YiwuFair ranks third in the domestic exhibition industry,only next toCanton Fair and the East China Fair.
　　In 2002,the China CommoditiesFair was upgraded to “China Yiwu International Commodities Fair” andYiwu Fair became an international fair. Due to the constant increase ofoverseas businessmen in the previous years,in 2002,the internationaltrade visitors had great changes in both quality and quantity,and theinternational fame of Yiwu city was greatly raised and the status of Yiwu in international commodities trade was clearly shown in Yiwu Fair.
　　On June 12,2004 the Cultural Products Trade Fair,the second largestexhibition in Yiwu,came into being. Although it was originally a folkfair in Yiwu,it attracted 2,000 foreign businessmen from more than 20countries and regions in 3 days. And the success of Cultural Fairbrought a series of professional exhibitions into Yiwu.
　　Thefolk-rooted Cultural Fair attracted the attention of Yiwu government.In order to bring the Cultural Fair into full play in the trade of Yiwucultural industry,Yiwu government took over the fair in 2006 and it wasnamed China Yiwu (International) Cultural Products Trade Fair. Theturnover of 2006 was a dozen times that of last year,which reached 1.36billion yuan. And the Cultural Fair became the second largest fair inYiwu thereafter.
　　The effects of Yiwu Fair and Yiwu Cultural Fairshow that the exhibitions in Yiwu have great advantages. Nowadays ledby Yiwu Fair and Yiwu Cultural Fair,many international professionalfairs develop together such as Consumer Goods Fair,Hardware Fair andBeauty & Cosmetics Expo. Every fair is the wind vane ofprofessional market,which serves to promote trade by exhibition andbring Yiwu exhibition industry and trade into mutual development. Inthese years,new exhibitions and exhibition companies from outside haveentered Yiwu constantly. And now there are over 40 exhibitions held inYiwu annually.
　　Yiwu Meihu Exhibition Center is one of the largest professional exhibition halls in East China. With the development of Yiwuexhibition industry,the scale of exhibition was enlarged gradually.This year the goal of building an international commodities exhibitioncenter was set at the enlarged meeting of the Fourth Plenary Session ofthe Twelfth Central Committee of CPC Yiwu Municipal Committee,thatis,to develop new exhibitions through market trade,to promote markettrade by exhibitions,and to foster a group of brand exhibitions led byYiwu Fair.