SZ to host more than 30 fairs this month

A Pakistani exhibitor offers food samples to visitors at the World Food and Agricultural Expo (Shenzhen) 2023 at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center on Dec. 1. Lin Songtao

More than 30 fairs and exhibitions are scheduled to take place in Shenzhen in the remaining days of December, after the city has already hosted a record number of conventions and exhibitions since the start of the year.

From Dec. 1 to 3, the World Food and Agricultural Expo (Shenzhen), GBA (Shenzhen) Wedding Expo and Shenzhen Home Expo took place simultaneously in the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District, gathering a large number of visitors.

For the rest of this month, Shenzhen will usher in more than 30 additional exhibitions, with such themes as intelligent manufacturing, diet and health, fashion, automotive industry, cross-border e-commerce, financial science and technology, biomedicine, and hotels and restaurants.

More than 30,000 professionals from home and abroad are expected to attend the Global Traffic Conference, which is slated to open at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, Dec. 6, will see the opening of six major exhibitions: the South China Smart Manufacturing & Innotech Fair, the China (Shenzhen) Defense Information Equipment and Technology Exhibition, the China (Shenzhen) Military and Civil Dual-use Scientific and Technological Equipment Expo, the Shenzhen Asia-Pacific Dental High-Tech Expo, the 11th GBA Intl. New Energy Auto Technology and Supply Chain Expo, and the 2023 Intl. Electronics Circuit Exhibition (Shenzhen), which wil be at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Bao'an District, as well as the third Shenzhen Intl. Advanced Automotive Technology Exhibition, which will take place at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District.

Fairs that will be held from mid-December to the end of the year include the Lifestyle Show Shenzhen, Healthplex Expo, Natural and Nutraceutical Products Shenzhen, China Industrial Science and Technology Financial Cooperation Forum and the Shenzhen Animation Dream Exhibition all at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Bao'an District and the World Catering Expo, Shenzhen Finexpo and Shenzhen International Enterprise Administrative Logistics Procurement Expo to take place at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian District.

A scene at the 31st China (Shenzhen) International Gift and Home Products Fair, which was held at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Bao'an District in late October. Zhang Yu

Since the beginning of this year, Shenzhen has been expanding its efforts in boosting its convention and exhibition sector. Official data shows that in the first 11 months of this year, the city held 169 exhibitions with a total exhibition area of 9.57 million square meters. The total exhibition area of the year is expected to exceed 10 million square meters, which will be a record high.

According to the city's commerce bureau, nearly 90%, or more than 160, of the fairs and exhibitions that have been held this year are related to the city’s "20+8" strategic industries, enabling upstream and downstream companies to broaden their sourcing and sales channels.

The exhibition sector has been one of the pillar industries of Shenzhen. The total areas of exhibitions taking place in Shenzhen in 2022 totaled 6.02 million square meters, accounting for 10.8% of the country’s total and ranking first among Chinese cities.

Shenzhen aims to build itself into an international consumption center by 2025, and a city of conventions and exhibitions will take shape by then, with the total exhibition area in the city exceeding 11 million square meters and three to five global top 100 exhibition companies to be either established in the city or introduced to the city, according to Shenzhen's 14th five-year plan.