Reed Exhibitions, one of the world’s largest exhibition organizers, and the China Foreign Trade Centre (Group), a national state-owned, large scale enterprise and the world’s largest exhibition venue provider, recently signed a first-ever strategic agreement.

Wang Zhiping, chairman of China Foreign Trade Centre (Group) and Mike Rusbridge, chairman of Reed Exhibitions, were in attendance and signed the agreement on behalf of their enterprises.

Chairman Wang Zhiping noted in his address, “As the benchmarking enterprise of China’s convention and exhibition industry with over 50 years in the field, the China Foreign Trade Centre (Group) has accumulated vast experience from organizing and presenting many of the world’s top exhibitions, namely the Canton Fair and mega events such as China International Furniture Fair (Guangzhou), International Building & Construction Trade Fair and International Automobile Industry Exhibition. In the meanwhile, we have additionally modernized two major exhibition venues, the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre (Pazhou Complex) and the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai Hongqiao).

He also noted that prior to the completion of the National Exhibition and Convention (Shanghai Hongqiao), the world’s largest exhibition hall in March 2015, these two venues spanned a combined building area of 2.6 million sqm with 738,000 sqm of indoor exhibition space and 143,6000 sqm of outdoor venues.

“It has been predicted that, in 2015, the total exhibition area of these two venues will exceed 10 million sqm, occupying one tenth of the total exhibition area in China,” Zhiping said.

Mike Rusbridge shared his enthusiasm, “After more than three decades of rapid growth in China, today’s signing event is a milestone for Reed Exhibitions. The new strategic alliance agreement between Reed Exhibitions and the China Foreign Trade Centre is ‘a powerful statement of intent’ between two strong partners with one common goal to continue building world- leading exhibition events in China. Reed’s commitment to China has never been stronger with our eight outstanding member companies who currently organize over 50 events covering 12 specialized industries nationwide.”

He added, “This alliance will remain instrumental to the modernization and sustained success of the industry.”

Both parties view this new strategic alliance as a “rewarding relationship, long-term cooperation and joint development” with an aim to not only realize mutual benefits, but also to leverage their resources to achieve comprehensive cooperation and joint development in all levels and areas of the exhibition field.

The alliance includes regular executive meetings, resource sharing, professional talent cultivation, exhibition projects, organization and venue cooperation.

In May 2015, three mega medical and healthcare industry events, CMEF, API China and PHARM China, organized by Reed Sinopharm will collocate for the first time at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai.

The Chinese Government is actively exploring opportunities that can be gained through strategic collaborations. This partnership between China Foreign Trade Centre (Group) and Reed Exhibitions is an example of domestic and foreign exhibition enterprises combining their strengths and collaborating to create a win-win alliance.

It also signifies a desire to expand and open-up the economy by engaging global players and developing the Chinese convention and exhibition industry, from a large scale market to a cutting edge industry, whilst encouraging strategic growth.