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PECC
International Environmental Trade and Investment Fair
Tianjin, China, 6-10 November 2001
The
trade fair was held under the auspices of the Pacific Economic
cooperation Council (PECC). The organisers included the Chinese
Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC),
the China State Environmental Protection Authority (SEPA),
and the China Council for the Pormotion of International Trade
(CCPIT).
It was held in Tianjin (population 11 million), the major
port for Beijing and indeed the whole of North China. Tianjin
is 1.5 hours from Beijing by train, bus or car.
The trade fair was very well organized. There were about 400
stands set up in two huge halls of the city’s Sports
Centre. There were stands from all over China and several
from overseas countries, including Holland, France, Japan,
Russia and Indonesia. Sustainability Centre had a larger-than-average
sized stand in an excellent location near the entrance on
the main avenue of stands. It was the only Australian stand
presenting green products, however CSR had a stand for its
construction materials. Businesses represented at the Sustainability
Centre stand included:
Global Renewables Limited (solid waste management)
Sustainability Centre Pty Ltd
Sustainable Energy Development Authority of NSW (energy efficiency
& renewable energy)
Venco Products (efficient pottery wheels)
Westwind Turbines (small wind generators)
Zeolite Australia Limited (wastewater management)
With the assistance of Sustainability Centre, these Australian
businesses were able to promote their goods and services at
the trade fair at a fraction of the cost of sending their
own teams.
For the first three days, big crowds passed through the trade
fair and we handed out hundreds of bilingual information sheets
for each company/product that we were representing. For the
second three days, the crowds slackened off, but the workload
actually increased, because people came to talk in depth.
What with visits to printers, business lunches, business-matching
meetings, follow-up phone calls, and visits to factories and
eco-villages, we were working from 9.00 am until late at night.
It was exciting and exhausting.
Thanks to the moral support of Austrade and our own Chinese
contacts, we were treated as principal overseas guests and
Sustainability Centre was invited to participate in the official
welcome by the Mayor and the official banquet. Mark was one
of only two non-Chinese speakers at the half-day Eco-Cities
Forum (pictured below) – the other was the distinguished
Japanese architect, Takekuni Ikeda.
We
met the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Tianjin, the heads of the
EPAs of Beijing and Tianjin, the Vice-Chairman of China People’s
Political Consultative Conference, the Executive Vice-Chairman
of the China National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation,
and government officials and businesspeople from various parts
of China.
Our
green products from Australia received excellent media coverage
on satellite and local TV, various radio programs and several
articles in the Tianjin newspapers.
Following
the trade fair, negotiations are proceeding regarding several
possible sales and joint ventures.
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