A designed platform to tap into the Chinese mainland market for ASEAN exhibitors

HKTDC Hong Kong Houseware Fair is the largest in Asia, attracting thousands of international exhibitors and buyers. Particularly, Chinese mainland ranks the top visiting countries for many years, bought over 3,300 visitors to the fair in 2010. Under CAFTA (China-ASEAN Free Trade Area), ASEAN exhibitors can enjoy more businesses with Chinese mainland buyers meeting at the fairground.

The high concentration of Chinese mainland buyers in Houseware Fair enables exhibitors to tap into the booming mainland market. Chinese mainland, the second-largest world’s economy, is expected to have 76 million upper-middle class households and become the biggest luxury market by 2015 in the world according to a McKinsey & Company report on China’s luxury goods consumption.

With the launch of CAFTA (China-ASEAN Free Trade Area) in 2010 to reduce the import tax of most items between Chinese mainland and ASEAN countries, the ASEAN Select in Hong Kong Houseware Fair is seen as an easy access to Chinese mainland buyers for sourcing quality oriental and traditional handicrafts from ASEAN countries, whilst exhibitors from ASEAN countries can meet a group of Chinese mainland buyers from various provinces/cities under one roof for trade.

To date, ASEAN Select features over 80 exhibitors from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam this year. Through the extensive worldwide office network of HKTDC and our relentless effort, over 35 groups of buying missions have signed to visit the Houseware Fair till now, including Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen from the Chinese mainland, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Thailand, UAE and the USA, which allows ASEAN exhibitors to get in touch and make deals with mainland buyers as well as international buyers.

ASEAN Select, first launched in 2010, has also received good feedback from exhibitors. A Vietnamese exhibitor, Nguyen Anh Tuyet, General Manager of Truong Thinh Manufacturing & Trading Co. said, “Our company specialises in accent furniture and home decor products manufactured in Vietnam using local materials and designs. We now wish to find new clients in different markets and we knew that this fair attracts buyers from around the world. We’ve been very happy to meet visitors from places such as Brazil and Australia this week. We’ve had good feedback on our products – our style is new to them. We are very hopeful that we will get business as a result and we will be able to forge some long-term partnerships.”