Financial institution to host matchmaking event to provide firms with opportunities, Hao Nan reports.

Bank of China, one of the country's biggest State-owned lenders, will showcase its upgraded matchmaking services to both exhibitors and buyers at the upcoming third China International Import Expo by organizing a related conference during the event.

The Trade and Investment Matchmaking Conference, one of the most important activities at the expo, is scheduled to be held on Friday and Saturday at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai. It is designed to help participants find potential business partners in China and beyond, according to BOC, a strategic partner of the CIIE.

The conference, which is in line with the CIIE's general requirements of "good performance, good results and continued success in the years to come", will cover all six sectors of the expo including automobiles, trade service, consumer goods, food and agricultural products, medical equipment and healthcare products.

Participants will be arranged to have one-to-one or one-to-more business negotiations and connections. For those that are unable to attend the expo physically, BOC will provide online matchmaking services via the bank's independently developed system targeting small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Global SME Matchmaking System, which was used at the second CIIE, can automatically find potential partners for users based on their characteristics, needs and other related information after they finish registration. It can also share the data of companies and information on industries and markets.

BOC will also set up an area for government agencies and industrial parks to conduct investment-attraction roadshows.

According to the CIIE Bureau, it is expected to arrange 10 rounds of one-to-one and face-to-face negotiations in the matchmaking conference every day.

This will be the third time that BOC hosts the event. The first two sessions of the conference attracted a total of more than 2,500 exhibitors and 4,500 buyers from over 100 countries and regions, resulting in about 3,400 cooperation intentions.

The bank's supply-demand matchmaking conference in 2018 attracted the participation of 1,178 overseas exhibitors from 82 countries and regions and 2,462 Chinese companies, and reached 1,258 purchase intention agreements.

As the largest supporting activity at the first CIIE, it covered more than 30 industries and set up national sections for Italy, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, the Dominican Republic and Georgia. Translation and business consultation services were provided in 14 languages including English, Japanese, Korean and Polish.

The conference was highly praised by domestic and foreign officials and business leaders as "one of the most efficient events of the expo", according to the CIIE Bureau.

At the three-day matchmaking conference during the second CIIE, up to 1,367 exhibitors from 103 countries and regions and 3,258 Chinese buyers signed a total of 2,160 purchase intention agreements.

Last year, the conference included matchmaking meetings designed for exhibitors from Uzbekistan and Belarus. There was also a section devoted to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games to help Chinese and overseas participants discuss trade in winter sports equipment, services and tourism.

BOC is an official partner of the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. As a result, it has a responsibility to bring together enterprises and tap business opportunities arising from winter sports and related industries, according to the bank's executives.

In the context of economic globalization, the bank said its cross-border trade and investment matchmaking services for small and medium-sized companies can help SMEs better integrate into global capital, value and industry chains.

In China, SMEs serve as a major engine driving the country's export-oriented economic growth. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said at a five-year development plan (2016-20) that it supported them to merge and invest in innovative counterparts in foreign countries, and accelerate the "mingling" of technologies, brands and services of Chinese SMEs.

Statistics from the ministry show that China had more than 30 million SMEs and 70 million self-employed household businesses at the end of 2018. Together, they contributed more than 60 percent of the country's GDP.

As of now, BOC has organized a total of 68 business matchmaking events at home and abroad for SMEs. They have attracted 30,000 enterprises from 125 countries and regions, involving sectors such as IT, biomedicine, high-end manufacturing, artificial intelligence, modern agriculture, new energy, environmental protection, health and tourism.

In the section of high-end manufacturing, for example, the bank has held several business cooperation and negotiation meetings between Chinese and European companies. These events took place in Langfang in China's Hebei province, Dusseldorf in Germany, and Milan in Italy, covering such fields as machinery, chemicals, automobiles, electronics and electrical products.

The initiative also aimed to boost the implementation of the Made in China 2025 plan, according to the bank.

To better serve participants at these events, BOC has established a professional and multilingual service team that consists of more than 300 staff members working across various areas.