The annual China International Small and Medium Enterprise Fair (CISMEF) plays an important role for Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enhance co-operation with their overseas counterparts, said leading government officials at central and provincial levels.

"The organizing committee has done well in the previous two sessions of the fair, which helped Chinese SMEs better integrate into the international market," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao early this year.

Wen hopes the committee has learnt from experience (of the past sessions) and will make more innovations to upgrade the fair's scale.

This year's fair, which has been upgraded to an international level, will be held on September 15-18 at the Guangzhou International Exhibition and Convention Centre (Pazhou Complex) in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

"The fair, after its upgrade, will better help promote economic and trade co-operation between Chinese SMEs and their overseas counterparts," Wen said.

Beginning two years ago, the annual fair has also been listed high on the work agenda of Guangdong provincial government during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

"We will make full preparations for organizing the fair, which has already become an important platform and world-renowned brand name to increase understanding and strengthen international co-operation between Chinese SMEs and their overseas counterparts," said Zhang Dejiang, Party secretary of Guangdong Province.

Huang Huahua, the provincial governor, also pinned high hopes on the upcoming CISMEF and suggested the organizing committee be fully prepared, to ensure its successful opening as scheduled.

"We should develop the fair as a world-renowned brand for international economic and trade co-operation, to attract more international and domestic SMEs to display their products and share experience," Huang said.

Guangzhou, an ancient export and import hub in South China, has already had an internationally renowned commodities fair, which is known as the Canton Fair.

China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance are both involved in sponsoring the CISMEF, making the event Guangzhou's second largest permanent fair, after the Canton Fair.

According to Huang, the provincial government has earmarked special funds for organizing the upcoming CISMEF.

According to Huang, China now has more than 4.2 million registered SMEs, accounting for over 99 per cent of the total number of China's enterprises.

"Most of the SMEs have difficulties in terms of raising funds and developing international markets," said Huang, adding that the fair should help domestic SMEs "go out" to the international market.

Along with the Promotion Law for SMEs, which came into force in 2003, the annual CISMEF was very successful at its last two sessions, which also helped attract the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Ministry of International Trade and the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory to sponsor this year's fair.

The first session of the fair held two years ago saw 1,950 SMEs displaying their products and 118,000 overseas business people, with transaction values reaching US$3.87 billion.

Last year, the fair attracted over 3,500 SMEs from home and abroad to showcase their merchandise, with the transaction value reaching 42.6 billion yuan (US$5.35 billion).

There were also a great number of business delegations from over 70 countries and regions intending to co-operate with Chinese SMEs.

Last year's fair, which was also sponsored by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry, had 300 booths representing French SMEs. Transaction value between Chinese and French SMEs reached 8.3 million yuan (US$1.03 million) at last year's fair, including on-site contracts and letters of intent that amounted to 7.8 million yuan (US$975,000).

To better help Chinese SMEs raise funds, the China Banking Regulatory Commission also began sponsoring the event at the last session.

With sponsorships from Italy, this year's fair will not only promote co-operation between Chinese and Italian SMEs, but also help Chinese SMEs go global, the organizing committee said.

Editor: Yan