The Yangtze Business Network was launched with a one-day networking conference in Shanghai on April 12. Held at the five-star Regal International East Asia Hotel, the inaugural conference was sponsored by Kalmar and Citigroup.
The event attracted more than 100 participants, ranging from port developers such as DP World, AP Moller Maersk, and Port of Singapore Authority, shippers such as Rio Tinto, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto and Plexus Cotton, and suppliers that included Kalmar, Konecranes and Castrol Marine. General managers, board chairmen, directors of port authorities and other senior local government officials from 13 port cities also attended the gathering. Senior government officials representing the Chinese Ministry of Communications in charge of the Yangtze River gave presentations and answered questions from the floor.
Following 10 well-received presentations, two-and-a-half hours in the afternoon were devoted to matchmaking sessions where foreign businesses signed up for face-to-face meetings with their Chinese counterparts. The feedback from both sides was extremely positive.
The next conference will take place in the same hotel in April 2009.
Focus
For the 2007 conference, the focus was on infrastructure projects: ports, waterway and vessels.
Language
Simultaneous translation was provided throughout the presentations. However all delegates, both Chinese and Western, were encouraged to bring their own interpreters or English/Chinese-speaking staff in order to interact and conduct business with each other.
Profiles of the participating Chinese
General managers, deputy general managers in charge of production, planning, handling equipment, and board chairmen from 13 major ports along the Yangtze participated in the conference. Senior government officials, those in charge of the waterway in particular, were present to meet potential investors and suppliers for the multi-million dollar Digital Waterway programme they are building.
Most of the participating companies and organisations submitted in advance a detailed shopping list, either to attract a foreign partner in an expansion project or to purchase equipment and technology. So did the waterway bureau. The full list was updated as and when new information became available, so that Western delegates could identify the people and organisations they most wanted to see.