Held in Shenzhen city from 16th to 21st, November every year, China Hi-Tech Fair(CHTF for short) is the largest and most influential scientific exhibition at present in China, which is approved by the State Council of P.R.C and hosted jointly by Ministry of Commerce of the P.R.C, Ministry of Science and Technology of the P.R.C, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the P.R.C, National/Development and Reform Commission of the P.R.C, Ministry of Education of the P.R.C, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the P.R.C, Ministry of Agriculture of the P.R.C, State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government. Its organizer is China Hi-Tech Transfer Center (Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center Management Co., Ltd.)
CHTF makes commercialization of high-tech achievements, product exhibitions, high-level forums, investment invitation and information exchange all in one. Through the organic combination of “government, industry, academia, research, capital and intermediary”, it provides a convenient channel for customers at home and abroad in seeking projects, technologies, products, markets, funds and talents. With many years’ progress, CHTF has been an important window of opening-up in the field of China’s Hi-technologies. It becomes more and more important in increasing Hi-tech achievements’ commercialization, industrialization and internationalization as well as strengthening the communication and cooperation of economy, science and technology between countries and regions.
I. The General Introuction of CHTF
Since CHTF was first held in 1999, it has received many attentions and great supports from governments of China at various levels, which can be proved by the coming of several great state leaders such as Zhu Rongji, Wu Bangguo, Li Changchun, Wu Yi and Zeng Peiyan. Meanwhile, it is also enjoying a huge popularity among a large number of domestic and foreign Hi-tech enterprises. The exhibitors are from nearly 50 countries such as U.S.A, British, Germany, Canada, Australia, Italy and Russia, 1 international organization like European Union, and over 40 world famous international enterprises such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Siemens, British Telcom, Ericsson, Phillip, SAP, Sony and Samsung. All the provinces, autonomous prefectures, municipalities, cities with separate national economic and social development planning, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are the usual participants of the event. China Hi-tech Forum, known originally as the World Science, Technology and Economy Forum has invited about 400 speakers, most of whom are elites of business, politics and academia, Nobel Prize winners, Ministerial-level officials or presidents of international enterprises. Every CHTF attracts more than 500 thousand audiences and achieves USD 13 billion in the trading of products and technologies.
After years’ development, CHTF has become the largest and most influential scientific exhibition and won a reputation of “the No.1 Technology Show in China” because of its “state-level, international, high-level, large scale, productive, professional and all year around.
II. The Main Content of CHTF
With a continued consummating, six unique sectors of CHTF have shaped up:
Commercialization of Hi-Tech Achievements: as the core content of CHTF, it brings China’s most advanced scientific achievements all together. Its participants coming to exhibit, trade and negotiate are foreign governments or institutions, over 30 provinces, autonomous prefectures, municipalities, cities with separate national economic and social development planning, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, related national departments, committees and councils, and nearly 30 famous national universities. (More details about the situation of foreign government organizing groups for every CHTF please turn to CHTF brochure)
Specialized show: brings famous domestic and foreign enterprises in the fastest-developing specialized fields together to show their latest technologies and products, due to which, it is regarded as the flag of specialty, authority and mainstream. It is comprised of “IT of CHTF/ComNet”, “CHTF/Opto-FPD”, “CHTF/ELEXCON” etc. and is an important channel for specialized exhibitors at home and abroad in showing their strength, collecting information, getting customers, promoting new products and transacting technologies. Notably, “IT of CHTF/ComNet” has got approval from UFI.
Forum: originally known as World Science, Technology and Economy Forum, it is famous for the speakers’ high rank and high profile, and has become one of the top forums in the fields of world economy, science and technology because of its high level, great scale and highly international. The well-known forums are Ministerial Forum, Capital Market Forum and Chinese Entrepreneurs Summit, etc.
Super-SUPER special events: as one of the original creations of CHTF, the branded events provide personal and menu-style services for national and foreign high-rank people, scientists, economists, entrepreneurs, investors and financier to step up investment attraction and the cooperation of Chinese and the world through effective interactive communication among the high levels.
Hi-tech Human and intellectual resources exchange: as an international, comprehensive, large and high-level platform, it offers an occasion for the enterprises coming to CHTF to get talents from home and abroad to further realize the effective integration of talents, skills, capitals and markets.
A year-round fair: CHTF is a fair that will last all year around by providing the service of transaction of hi-tech achievements, whose main content is the following daily services: project collection, review, appraisal, recommendation, matching and financing, etc. Also, the sessions held at home and abroad irregularly established a standing trade market for the transactions of hi-tech achievements.
III. The Characteristics of CHTF
State level: CHTF is held under the approval of State Council, hosted by ten ministries and Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government and received several state leaders like Zhu Rongji, Wu Bangguo, Li Changchun, Wu Yi and Zeng Peiyan. All the provinces, autonomous prefectures, municipalities, cities with separate national economic and social development planning, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are the usual participants of the event.
International: every CHTF attracts many exhibitors from nearly 50 countries coming for trading and negotiation. Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Siemens, British Telcom, Ericsson, Phillip, SAP, Sony and Samsung, such world famous international enterprises come to show their latest technologies and products. Many famous stock exchanges, investment institutions and intermediary organs all come to CHTF together. Many influential people from dozens of countries show their appearances at the CHTF forum.
High level: CHTF displayed a big batch of cutting-edge technological achievements in China and the world. The first-class international enterprises also regard CHTF as a stage for their advanced technologies and products. All the hosts of CHTF select and send projects that can represent the highest level hi-technologies of China to CHTF for displaying and trading. Many national key programs, State Engineering Research Center, the national high technology industrialization demonstration project and National 863 project all come to the fair. CHTF will provide high-level services to all the exhibitors and conference participants with its high-standard modern hall and scientific management system.
Large scale: all the provinces, autonomous prefectures, municipalities, cities with separate national economic and social development planning, about 30 famous universities, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are the usual participants of the event. There are thousands of exhibitors, projects and investors at every CHTF. Over 500 thousand people come to visit and negotiate and over 300 media with more than one thousand reporters come to report. CHTF can be said as the biggest trade market of technologies and products and the base for their imports and exports.
Productive: the rich resources of CHTF are a large number of exhibitors, exhibition projects, investors, high-level audiences and concentrated professional buyers. There are over 50 thousand people coming to CHTF and the trading volume of products and technologies is over USD 13 billion. Every time, tens of organizations from banking, insurance, notarization, guarantee and law come to CHTF to offer their services for the transaction of technologies. The hi-tech human and intellectual resource exchange, beginning from the sixth CHTF, builds up a platform for the participation enterprises in providing talents and intelligence.
Professional: CHTF provides professional services for the people from the fields of science and technology, economy and business and holds over 30 exchange activities of all kinds. The specialty of CHTF is obvious: Specialized shows, which is a specialized occasion for the experts in the fields of IT, electronic and FPD to exchange ideas, trade and negotiate. Professional audiences at high proportion, according to the survey to the audiences of the 8th CHTF, the professional visitors were high as 79.5% and the professional customer popularity index reached 278 (the data is provided by Horizon-China Company). A qualified and professional working group, whose members that hold the intermediate and senior professional titles and postgraduate diploma account for over 60%. Shenzhen Convention＆Exhibition Center Management is the first enterprise who obtained the approval of the international authentication ISO9002 in China.
All year round: CHTF provides trading services all year around for the hi-tech projects and enterprises that participate in the fair. Online transaction and exhibition are also available all the time. Other services like promoting and introducing hi-tech projects, matching, capital raising, packaging and pairing project negotiation are provided, too. Besides the above-mentioned, there are more services such as industrial hi-tech product exhibition, providing consultation service for the Chinese enterprises in capital raising and listing at abroad, property rights trading service and so on.
IV. The Important Role that CHTF Plays
Since the first CHTF, it made an active exploration in establishing hi-tech achievement trading system with Chinese characteristics. It not only brought excellent environments and opportunities for the science and technology development to Shenzhen even the whole nation, but also paved a green path for overseas technologies, capitals and products into Chinese market. For the Chinese hi-technologies’ opening up, promoting its achievements’ commercialization, industrialization and internationalization and stepping up the exchange and communication of economy, science and technology between countries and regions, CHTF all plays an important role and thus drive China’s hi-tech industry forward.
In driving the transaction of hi-tech achievements: CHTF combines government, industry, academia, research, capital and intermediary together creatively, bringing into full play the government, intermediary and capital market so as to realize the commercialization, industrialization and internationalization of hi-tech achievements by providing talents, skills, capital, market, information, appraisal and consultation service. The development of venture investment and trading market of technological property rights are also benefited from this.
In driving independent innovation: first, CHTF builds up a platform of exhibition and transaction for the technological achievements of independent innovation and personal inventions. Second, it opens a window for importing scientific and technological innovations and learning the international advanced experiences. Third, it safeguards the scientific and technological innovations through intellectual property protection, and helps to create a good and strong atmosphere of innovative culture in the whole society.
In stepping up the cooperation of economy, science and technology among countries and regions: CHTF gathers all the cutting-edge technologies and products at home and abroad, collects first-class international enterprises, national enterprises, universities and research institutions and invites many elites in the circles of business, politics and academia. Through achievements transaction, products displaying, high-level forums, projects investment and other special activities, CHTF builds up a great platform for the exchange of science and technology and economic cooperation as well as makes contributions to setting up a big country image by developing science and education and peaceful rise.
In driving the development of convention and exhibition industry: CHTF has become one of the most influential exhibitions in the world. Led by it, a batch of exhibitions concerning science and technology has got a fast development and sent the whole exhibition industry onto a path of rapid development. Meanwhile, the capabilities like organizing and serving for the big international exhibition are improved drastically. Shenzhen is considered to be one of four cities of exhibitions.
In driving the development of cities’ and regional economy: first, CHTF creates new environment and opportunities for the further development of Shenzhen Hi-tech industry. Second, it steps up the construction of urban public infrastructure and service industry. Third, it lifts Shenzhen’s international image and expands its influence. Fourth, it makes Shenzhen’s humanities spirit progress. Fifth, it promotes the cooperation and integrates the development of Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Guangzhou as well as the cities in pan-pearl river delta.
V. The Representatives of Success at CHTF
CHTF has become a booster for the development of China’s hi-tech industry because of its outstanding characteristics. Thousands of customers at home and abroad got harvests at different aspects.
---many projects were industrialized quickly after CHTF, which included National Science and Technique Plan Projects like transgenic insect-resisting cotton and ground effect in aircraft, 863 plan, spark plan, torch plan and CASP. Some products with independent property rights entered the international market.
---with the help of CHTF, IDG, such international investment organizations expanded their business rapidly in China. Many companies such as Kingdee and Tencent received venture investments which made their today possible.
---through CHTF, many world famous stock exchanges and stock agencies made business connections with Chinese enterprises, nowadays, there are tens of Chinese enterprises has listed at abroad.
---a batch of overseas students like Deng Guoshun and Xu Guohong came back to pursue their own career after participating in CHTF, and established Netac, such great hi-tech enterprises.
---at CHTF, a lot of cooperative relationships were established such as Canada Harris Company and Hainan province on the project of telecommunication, European Union and Hu Bei province on the water resource usage, Austria and Guangxi, MSC corporation and Hunan province, etc.
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VI. CHTF-Never Stop Innovation and Progress
Since the first CHTF in 1999, in face of the opportunities and challenges in the process of China’s hi-tech industry’s rapid development and modernization, CHTF advances with the time and keeps constant innovations through trying new trading methods and more down-to-earth exhibition style.
At the first CHTF, it creatively brought into full play of governments and intermediaries in making successful transaction of hi-tech achievements and projects. The meaningful attempt it made in exploring new-type trading mechanism led to a groundbreaking trading model named “the combination of achievement transaction and venture investment”. Besides thousands of high-level projects, CHTF also gathered a lot of domestic and foreign enterprises that demands technologies, venture investment institutions, intermediaries, and financial institutions. The establishing of online transaction system for buyers and suppliers realized “all-year-round CHTF”, which created conditions and got great harvests from achievements to productivity.
For making full use of the opportunities of buyers and sellers being together, at its second, CHTF came up with the idea of match-making business negotiations and talks, which increased transaction rate tremendously by a series of selecting, recommending, communicating and talking fact to face. Since that, they have got extended in space and time, whose representative mode is CHTF sessions in many cities of China and foreign cities like Austria’s Vienna and Spain’s Barcelona. They not only made the transactions successful but also expanded CHTF’s international influence, by which, CHTF sessions become a brand of all-year-round fair.
Meanwhile, CHTF is very active in establishing new–type capital market centering on the transaction of hi-tech property rights and venture capital investment so that it set up Shenzhen International Hi-tech Property Right Exchange.
Aiming at satisfying the capital-raising demand of the newly-started and growing enterprises, CHTF attracted many institutions of venture investment at home and abroad with its great influence. Since the third CHTF, it has realized the hopes of hundreds of scientific and technological enterprises with holding investment talks.
Through stock transfer, venture investment and capital raising, a batch of hi-tech enterprises gradually grew up and wanted to enter public capital market for their fast expanding. Therefore, since 2000, CHTF has began holding the activities of consultation and talks for Chinese enterprise in hope of listing at abroad, which received warmhearted responses from medium and small enterprises of science and technology. Ten stock exchanges from Europe, North America, East Asia and South Asia and tens of famous intermediaries, investment banks as well as thousands of Chinese enterprises took part in the activities. Since then, CHTF has created the “products” of different ladders from “Match-making talks of hi-tech project” to “talks of newly-started investment” to “consultation and talks of Chinese enterprises listing at abroad” to satisfy the needs of the transaction of hi-tech achievements at different phases.
At the same time, in order to increase the chances of contact and communication between governmental officials from different parts of the world, CEOs of international enterprises, high-level managers of stock exchanges and scholars and the various governments of China and enterprises as well as the added value of their participation, the fourth CHTF started to hold “super-SUPER” special events. Its particular “menu-style” services with the opportunities of communicating, meeting and negotiating made itself a unique brand of CHTF.
The style of CHTF in organizing exhibition which is innovative, down-to-earth and transaction-oriented achieved a good result in the fifth CHTF, where a lot of projects that had been transacted successfully showed their promising development future.
Since its sixth, CHTF has not longer announced transaction volume to the public and canceled the ceremony of signing key projects, which is not only following international practice but also following a scientific approach of development and paying efforts to keep the down-to-earth style. It shows CHTF gradually puts its efforts on improving services to all participants and boosting projects’ realization, to make itself more pragmatic and practical.
Sticking to the national development strategies, the eighth CHTF highlighted three themes: “independent innovation, recycling economy and property rights protection” through holding the first grand recycling economy exhibition, encouraging civil innovation by “the exhibition of personal technological innovation” and protecting property rights by “the activity of issuing certificates and signs to the independent property rights and products”.
In the beginning of 2007, according to the new development situation of the international economy, science and technology, the organizing committee of CHTF, standing on the strategic height and starting from the actual demands, proposed a new idea for CHTF development, which is “take the comprehensive CHTF of October as the main body and compensate it with occasional commercial specialized sessions”, named 1+n CHTF. In May, 2007, such a completed commercial Spring CHTF—“ICEF 2007” themed on the trading of consumer electronic terminals—was held and achieved a big success.
Many years’ development made CHTF become a state-level science and technology fair with the greatest influence in China. In order to make it “the No.1 Technology Show in China”, the organizing committee of CHTF proposed “international, specialized, high quality and commercialized” for its future development.
It is believed that, with the time going, CHTF will be more and more innovative and enterprising, and finally become a flag leading the development of Chinese science and technology.
VII. Comments from Chinese State Leaders to CHTF
In order to promote the economic and technological cooperation between China and the other countries in the world, the Chinese Government decides to hold CHTF each year in Shenzhen
----Zhu Rongji (at the first CHTF)
As one of the important windows for the reform and opening-up of China’s hi-tech sector, CHTF has not only created good opportunities for the domestic and foreign enterprises and the scientific research and education institutions to participate in the international economic and technological exchange and operation but also provided a new and wide stage.
---Wu Bangguo (at the second CHTF)
With China’s accession into the WTO, CHTF will play a more and more important role in China’s hi-tech sector and exchange with the international society.
---Wu Yi (at the third CHTF)
As an important move for the reform and opening-up of China’s hi-tech sector, CHTF has displayed, in a concentrated way, not only a big batch of newest technological achievements made by China but also the advanced products and technologies of world-renowned hi-tech companies. It has widely spread the frontier concept of hi-tech developments in the world and effectively pushed up the transfer from the scientific and technological achievements to the actual productivity. Now, it has become an opening-up window and an exchange stage for the hi-tech sector between China and the world.
---Zhou Guangzhao (at the fourth CHTF)
With the joint efforts from various parties, CHTF enjoys a fast growth in its scale, internationalization and transaction volume, becoming a grand fair for the exchange and cooperation of international hi-tech industry. The first 20 years of this century is the key time for China’s building a well-to-do society, which provides a broad space for the development of CHTF. We should adjust ourselves to the new situation and grasp the new opportunities for making a better CHTF.
---Wu Yi (at the fifth CHTF)
VIII. Praise from International Friends of CHTF
My feeling is, no city in the us can develop as fast as Shenzhen. I will make a lecture on this hi-tech fair. From a scientist’s view of point, it is a good way to hold such a hi-tech fair.
---Horst L. Stormer
Scientist for Lucent Bell Laboratory and a Nobel Prize winner
The days I spend on CHTF 2002 Forums are worthwhile. On that CHTF, I got the opportunities to communicate with the economists, government officials and enterprises of China and learnt a lot from them. The economy of Shenzhen is extraordinary and unparalleled and makes all economists ascinating. I wish I could visit Shenzhen again.
---James C.Morris
Professor of Cambridge University of the UK and a Nobel Prize winner
This is not only the extract of China but also the future of China. As what I have seen, the high and new technologies of China are developing very quickly.
---John L. Prescott
Vice prime minister of the UK
Warm congratulations on the success of the excellent fair—one of the biggest and the important annual fairs.
---Christopher St. John
Vice president of MSC Software Co. of the US
The large-scaled CHTF has gathered many businessmen from the world and is of great significance.
---Agnes Rousseau
Director of Division of Investment of Montpellier Region
