MORE than 100 Chinese companies are participating in the Euro-China Business Week, which kicked off yesterday at the International Merchandising Centre (IMC) in Nicosia for the first time.
The six-day event will present a large variety of Chinese products, services and new technologies for export, said Andreas Kaisis, Chairman of the IMC.
He added that it would contribute towards establishing Cyprus as a regional business centre, connecting China, Europe and Middle East.
“The aim of the organisers was to bring China closer to Europe and to further promote Cyprus as a regional business centre in the Eastern Mediterranean, bringing together under one roof all the key players. This has been achieved by creating this magnificent exhibition of Chinese products and services – a representative sample of the vast potential of a country which within a relatively short time, has become an industrial powerhouse.”
He also said that visitors to the exhibition would have the opportunity to meet their business counterparts from China and the organisers, by special arrangement, can facilitate one-to-one meetings with a view to promoting business exchanges between interested parties.
Visitors will also have a chance to participate in workshops and seminars.
According to Kaisis, the IMC is the only purpose-built, high-tech, privately-owned exhibition and conference centre on the island.
President of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce, Manthos Mavromatis said that Cyprus is truly an international business centre, a fact known the world over.
“What is more natural for the business people of the Mediterranean basin and Balkan countries to visit Cyprus for their wholesale buying of good-quality Chinese products, rather than flying all the way to China?” he wondered.
“I have no doubt that the launching of this idea through the Euro-China Business Week will benefit both the Cyprus economy and as well as the Chinese companies participating, for it will give them access to the markets of neighbouring countries.”
Chinese Ambassador to Cyprus Zhao Yali said that the value of trade volume between Cyprus and China during the first nine months of 2007 was historic, reaching $505.6 million.
Imports to Cyprus from China reached $500.3 million in the period from January to September 2007, recording an 80 per cent increase, while exports from Cyprus to China reached $5.3 million, an increase of 154 per cent compared to the same period last year, Zhao added.
The Ambassador expressed that the exhibition would certainly contribute to the further enhancing of co-operation between the two countries in the commercial and economic sector.
Among the exhibitors are Wenzhou International Chamber of Commerce, Xiamen International Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Shandong Businesses, and the Made in China Association.
