Foreign small and medium-sized firms see opportunities at CIIE

Widjai Jipat is new to the CIIE but his products have come the second time.

Jipat is vice-president of Blue Sarefa, a company selling chocolate in the Netherlands. Last year, one of his Chinese friends in the Netherlands told him about the expo, but Jipat wanted to wait and see.

"My Chinese friend introduced my products to the expo last year, and he came back with so many inquiries," Jipat said. "He told me that I have to come this year."

Jipat has been preparing and communicating with his Chinese clients since then.

During the past week, Jipat have met around 20 potential Chinese clients. "They are all very big companies and we are going to have further meetings with their bosses to see how can we proceed the business," he said.

Jipat has two booths in the exhibition, one in the food sector and another in the home appliance and consumer product sector.

"We are already planning to come next year, and we are going to take bigger booths," he said.