TWO AEFI EVENTS IN SHANGHAI TO PROMOTE THE ITALIAN EXHIBITION INDUSTRY IN THE LAND OF THE DRAGON

AEFI’s commitment to the internationalisation of the Italian exhibition sector continues, with a series of initiatives focused on the opportunities offered by the Chinese market. The Association will be attending two events in China in the coming days, following on from multiple missions completed in recent months.
Specifically, AEFI will be present from 5 to 10 November at the Shanghai National Convention and Exhibition Center for the first edition of the “China International Import Expo (CIIE)”, an initiative co-organised by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Municipality of Shanghai, with which China wants to highlight its commercial openness to the world. For the occasion, the ICE Agency is ensuring a strong Italian presence, characterised by the claim “Italy the essence of excellence”, divided into five sectoral spaces and an institutional area where the main trade organisations will be present, including AEFI, which will illustrate the Italian exhibition system. AEFI President, Ettore Riello, will take part in the events organised by the ICE Agency in the Italian National Pavilion, meeting the press and local and international operators, with a speech on “The power of Italian Exhibitions meets China”, highlighting the opportunities offered by Italy’s trade fairs.
In conjunction with this event, AEFI was also invited by China Conference and Exhibition Magazine to co-organise the “China Conference and Exhibition Industries Trade Forum”, set to take place on 6 November in Shanghai. As part of the conference, Ettore Riello will present the Italian exhibition industry, in a speech entitled “Convention and Exhibition promote International Trade”.
In the last decade, China has been the protagonist of extraordinary growth that is driving a large part of Western economic activities; for Italian companies this is an extraordinary market, just as Italy represents a great business opportunity for Chinese operators.
“These events offer a fantastic opportunity to give the local business community there a better idea of the Italian trade fair sector and its peculiarities. The Chinese market represents a great opportunity for Italy, and vice versa, and business relationships between the two countries have grown in recent years and continue to go from strength to strength“, says Ettore Riello, AEFI President. “We can therefore ensure that exhibitors have a deeper understanding of the reality and potential of the Chinese market, while visitors can better understand our exhibition system and its various facets. For exhibitors and visitors, however, this is also a great business opportunity as these events are very important to promote cooperation and trade between the East and Europe, also in consideration of the ‘Belt & Road Initiative‘”, a highly strategic project promoting globalisation that includes, in addition to infrastructure development, the link between areas thus far outside world trade, the development of investment and international cooperation, financial cooperation and cooperation between nations.
Precisely in order to develop its relations with China, in September AEFI signed a partnership agreement with the EU Project Innovation Centre (EUPIC) – a non-profit organisation founded in Chengdu as part of Asia Invest II, the European Union project to promote business cooperation between the EU and Asia – with the aim of supporting the internationalisation of Italian trade fairs on strategic markets. On this occasion, AEFI also participated in the EU-China
Business and Technology Cooperation Fair in Chengdu, one of the country’s biggest business and finance centres, and
a point of reference for strengthening economic relations between the European Union and China.
Lastly, in June, AEFI was one of the key players in Shanghai for the Global Exhibition CEO Shanghai Summit 2018, the
annual event reserved for top leaders of the Chinese exhibition industry, open to international contributions to encourage
comparison and examination of wider industry issues. As part of this event, President Ettore Riello sat on the panel
dedicated to “Opportunities and challenges for the Belt & Road fairs”, underlining the need for egalitarian cooperation. If,
as economic data indicate, China is the new frontier of the world economy, the ‘Belt & Road Initiative’ will only speed up
and facilitate a process that, in addition to the economic impact, will certainly contribute to creating a bridge and
shortening the distances between West and East.

 

AEFI – Associazione Esposizioni e Fiere Italiane, a private non-profit Association, was established in 1983 with the goal of
generating synergies between the most important Italian exhibition districts. AEFI would like to be seen as a privileged partner for
operators and institutions alike, and its role is to support members through the development of activities and programmes in the
sphere of training, marketing, promotion and research, as well as to provide services for trade fairs through the activities of its
Committees: Exhibition Hub Technical Committee, Legal-Administrative Committee, Internationalisation Committee and Trade Fairs
Network Committee.
On the internationalization front, AEFI supports members thanks to agreements with strategic markets. To date, partnerships have
been agreed with Iran, Taiwan, Lebanon, India, Thailand and South Africa, with AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce in
Italy, and with CENTREX, the International Exhibition Statistics Union. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with SACE
and SIMEST.
AEFI has promoted the foundation of ISFCert, the Certification Institute for Exhibition Industry Statistics which, through rigorous
methodologies, enables Italian organisers to present and recognise standardised data, in the name of transparency and reliability.
AEFI represents Italian trade fairs in UFI – Union of International Fairs. Chaired by Ettore Riello, AEFI includes 35 member exhibition
districts, which organise over 1,000 events a year over an overall exhibition area of 4.2 million square metres. Nearly all international
and national trade fairs which take place each year in Italy are held in AEFI-member exhibition districts.