On May 3rd, the First Sino-French SME Cooperation Talks was held in Paris on the official platform of the 16th Sino-French Economic and Trade Mixed Committee Meeting. This talks was the first Sino-French economic and trade activity jointly organized by China and France and also the first economic and trade activity of the 2nd CSMEF and Sino-French SMEs Fair. Both Chinese and French governmental departments in charge of commerce attached great concern to this. Mr. Bo Xilai, Chinese Minister of Commerce, and Mr. Loos, Ministerial Representative of French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry in charge of foreign trade, led Chinese and French SMEs delegations respectively to attend the conference, making speeches and answering question raised by enterprises on the spot. Mr. Pierre Simon, President of Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris (CCIP) addressed welcoming speech. Mr. Louis Morris, Director General of UBIFRANCE made an introduction of Shanghai Expo, and Mr. Jia Guoyong, Vice Director of Foreign Trade Development Affairs Department of Ministry of Commerce, introduced relevant information of the 2nd CSMEF during the talks. Over 300 representatives from 31 Chinese SMEs (including 18 Guangdong SMEs) and 261 French SMEs attended the cooperation talks. The talks had achieved excellent results:
High Level, Large Scale and Strong Team. On May 3rd, the 16th Sino-French Economic and Trade Mixed Committee Meeting was held in Paris, France. This meeting was an official activity of Chinese and French governmental departments in charge of commerce. The two parties held discussions on subjects related to the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. Combining Sino-French SMEs Cooperation Talks with the high-level official activity of governmental departments in charge was a pronounced feature of the talks and also an important factor for the success of the activity. Minister Bo Xilai opened up the prospects of Sino-French SMEs cooperation, and warmly invited French SMEs to attend the 2nd CSMEF, which would be held in Guangzhou in this September. Mr. Loos mentioned in his speech, by far France had invested and established over 3,500 enterprises in China; however, France only took 1.5% market share in China, which was extremely discordant with France¡¯s world trade market share, which was 5.2%; therefore, Sino-French SMEs cooperation had great prospects. He called on all French SMEs to actively participate in CSMEF and conduct Sino-French economic and trade cooperation. Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris (CCIP) provided venue and facilities for this activity and invited French mediums to report the event.
Enterprises of the two countries were very enthusiastic about the cooperation talks and attended actively. French SMEs revealed great enthusiasm and demand to strengthen Sino-French economic and trade cooperation, and enrolled actively to attend the talks. The meeting scale had to be expanded once and again, while the venue was changed several times. The conference hall of 800 square meters had been fully occupied, even the aisle was full of seats, and in front of four cable TVs outside the hall there stood many representatives from French enterprises. Over 20 Chinese-funded enterprises in France came to join the talks. Many French attendants expressed their strong desire to strengthen Sino-French economic and trade cooperation. They don¡¯t want to lose the Chinese market, which is a marvelous market with 1.3 billion consumers.
Typical Enterprises from different industries had attended the talks: 18 enterprises from Guangdong covered 11 industries, namely telecommunication, electric power, hardware and machinery, medicine, light chemical, textile and garments, sugar refinery, food processing, timber processing and commerce and trade (retail industry), and ceramics, including: high & new-tech enterprises with independent intellectual properties , technological patent-owning manufacturers from traditional industries ; industrial enterprises, commercial and trade enterprises; state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and joint ventures; enterprises to attract investments, trading companies; and also enterprises looking for investment opportunities to implement ¡°Walk Out¡± strategy. Most enterprises sent their president or general manager to attend the talks. All Chinese enterprises had brought their specific projects to the talks, including 23 investment and economic and technological cooperation projects, 29 sales projects and 12 purchase projects with a total value of over USD 300 million.
Matching Talks with Clear Subjects, Fresh Style and Excellent Results. Enterprises from the two parties conducted one-to-one talks. They looked for business opportunities through face-to-face matching talks to promote economic and trade communication between the two countries and push forward the further development of the two economies. The communication was conducted in an active atmosphere. Each Chinese enterprise had the opportunity to discuss with 8 French enterprises in average, among them over 30 French enterprises proposed to talk with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Guangdong Economic and Trade Commission also set a talks table, which attracted 16 French enterprises. Val-d'Oise Economic Exploration Commission (a governmental department with similar functions of Guangdong Economic and Trade Commission) also sent personnel to discuss the cooperation between the two commissions. Right after the delegation¡¯s return to China, Val-d'Oise Economic Exploration Commission made calls to Guangdong Economic and Trade Commission and expressed that they could provide assistance and service for the promotion of Sino-French SMEs¡¯ cooperation.
Many Chinese representatives mentioned the talks with high appreciation. They had never seen such an active talks like this one that French enterprises even waited a long time in a line for an opportunity to talk with Chinese enterprises. Some enterprises found specific cooperation projects on the spot. Shantou Xingji Commercial and Trade Co., Ltd had primarily achieved cooperation intentions with French SITA Co., Ltd (specialized in wastes recycle), in the field of trade and investment on wastes recycle. SITA also invited Shantou Xingji to visit their company after the talks.
Guangdong Gaozhou Linong Organic Chemical Fertilizer Co., Ltd also had good news. On the third day, a French company, namely BOCCARD Co., Ltd, made an appointment with Gaozhou Linong for further discussion after their own serious evaluation on Linong. BOCCARD also expressed that they would visit Linong in Gaozhou if necessary.
Guangdong Dahua Sugar Co., Ltd reached primary cooperation intention with French CAOQUENET Co., Ltd ,they would adopt the French new cane-sugar technology in the technique course of sugar-refining; Vanguard Supermarket and A.Best Supermarket had extensive contacts with French enterprises, and primarily concluded a series of purchase contracts as well as French bread processing and sales projects.
Positive Feedbacks from All Circles: A TV station, a radio station and several newspapers in Paris made feature reports on this cooperation talks with high appraisal. They also interviewed Chinese attendants and made detail report. UBIFRANCE and CCIP made positive remarks on the successful holding of this cooperation talks and expressed lavish appreciation towards the meeting scale and atmosphere. Various domestic main mediums, including Radio Guangdong, Guangdong TV, Southern TV, Guangzhou TV, Nanfang Daily, Yangcheng Evening News, Guangzhou Daily and Private Economy News as well as many websites such as www.southcn.com, www.xinhuanet.com, www.ycwb.com, and www.csmef.com.cn had made live coverage in the airport on May 2 when Guangdong delegation started their visit to France and reported it immediately. Yangcheng Evening News and some websites also made tracking reports on it. Chinese Representatives gave a high praise to the style of this activity. With the supports and guide of Chinese government, Chinese SMEs could go abroad with the official delegation and take the initiative to cooperate with foreign SMEs. It could supply the Chinese SMEs with featured definite target and extensive contacts, so as to achieve great actual results. For example, Gaozhou Linong, which is an enterprise located in mountainous area, said that it was very hard to meet so many foreign clients even in a year; through this activity, Linong had not only made many friends with French SMEs, but also reached much cooperation intention, and achieved great results. 
