The 131st Canton Fair has hosted a "Trade Bridge" virtual promotion and home furnishing matchmaking event for RCEP countries on April 19, which targeted 14 RCEP member countries with focus on home furnishing industry.

Representatives from top multinational companies, buyers and trade media joined the event that connected two of China's national-level home furnishing industry clusters in Anxi (Fujian Province) and Shunde (Guangdong Province). China Foreign Trade Centre (CFTC) also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the ASEAN Furniture Industries Council (AFIC), making AFIC the first partner of CFTC in the furnishing industry.



Chu Shijia, Vice President and Secretary General of Canton Fair and Director General of CFTC, noted at the virtual promotion event that the Canton Fair is a key platform for China to carry out economic and trade cooperation with other countries and regions worldwide.

"Furnishing is a major sector of the Canton Fair. This spring, there are 3,166 furnishing companies participating in the trade show, including top brands in RCEP markets. This promotion event is tailored for specific markets and industries, that through the partnership with international furnishing industry media and associations, it has covered all RCEP member countries and connected buyers with excellent suppliers," said Chu.

Ernie Koh, Chairman of AFIC, remarked that the huge market of ASEAN is seeing steady growth in purchasing power, and the global furnishing industry is developing positively with the upward trend in trade volume. By establishing the partnership with Canton Fair, both organizations will achieve win-win cooperation and mutual benefit in various fields and jointly create a vibrant business environment to bolster foreign trade investment.

CFTC has arranged 11 matchmaking groups according to specific sourcing needs to connect international leading companies including Kawan Lama, Eurosa Furniture and LULU with Chinese suppliers. Zhu Zhiwei, head of procurement of Kawan Lama, said that the group's annual purchase amount is around US$180 million, and the matchmaking event has supported their procurement layout, and they will add more high-quality Chinese products to the orders.

"Canton Fair has been Kawan Lama's most important platform for global procurement. This event has introduced to us more excellent companies and new products that also reflected the cluster advantages of China's furnishing industry, which not only corresponds to the market trends, but also is in line with Kawan Lama's new procurement needs," said Zhu.

In addition to the partnership with AFIC, the CFTC will also sign strategic cooperation agreements with industrial and commercial institutions in Laos and Vietnam, by then will achieve full coverage of RCEP member countries.

As a comprehensive platform for opening-up, the Canton Fair has been actively engaged in RCEP's mechanism establishment, promoting the implementation of agreements in various fields as well as the development of regional economic and trade cooperation.