A four-day Taiwanese product exposition opened Thursday in the Chinese city of Tianjin with 2,000 booths manned by 800 Taiwanese businesses, which attracted the participation of 160 Chinese companies seeking procurement deals.
The expo, organized by the Tianjin city government and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), is the first of its kind to be held since Taiwan and  the mainland signed an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) June 29.
TAITRA Chairman Wang Chih-kang said that of the 800 Taiwanese exhibitors, about 50 percent are small and medium-sized enterprises and 200 are those included on the ECFA's "early harvest" list, making them subject to preferential tariff or market access treatment.
A total of 539 categories of Taiwanese goods and services are on the list.
Last year, a four-day Taiwanese goods fair organized by TAITRA in Nanjing attracted 300,000 visitors and led to orders worth US$770 million. The success of that fair prompted invitations to TAITRA from 15 Chinese provinces, according to Wang.
Tianjin registered the second-fastest GDP growth rate among all Chinese cities in 2009. Meanwhile, its GDP per capita also reached a high of US$10,000, Wang said, adding that this means the purchasing power in the city is high and that Tianjin is an ideal market for investigation by Taiwanese businesses.
