Qingdao, China — In the spirit of global cooperation, the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce (CECC) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) kicked off the 2006 China International Consumer Electronics Show, otherwise known as SINOCES, in a convention-eve press conference here.
CEA brought to the show a contingent of more than 20 U.S. consumer electronics manufacturers, vendors and press to help promote SINOCES and position it as China’s “most influential professional exposition of consumer electronics.”
To help verify that status, Wang Ning, CECC executive director, announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce recently proclaimed SINOCES as “the sole consumer electronics show in the Asia-Pacific region” that it has certified.
“Some experts believe that the reasons why the U.S. government supports the show are that, on the one hand, they realized that China’s huge electronics market will provide American enterprises with infinite business opportunities. On the other hand, the show itself boasts bright prospects and steady development with each passing year,” he continued.
The show offers U.S. manufacturers a networking opportunity to sell their products into the country and to identify and negotiate with potential manufacturing resources for their goods, Ning said.
Co-sponsors of the show also include the Qingdao Municipal Government, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shandong Provincial Government.
This year’s show — the fifth in its history — will feature 392 attending enterprises, among which 82, or one-quarter of all exhibiters, are from abroad. The show offers 1,206 standard booths with a total exhibition area of 376,000 square feet in three exhibition halls.
“We promise CEA every year that we will increase attendance at the show by 5 percent, and this year we will increase it by 10 percent, to approximately 6,000 retail buyers, and approximately 75,000 total attendees,” said Ning.
The show is divided into seven categories, including home video, home entertainment, home networking, home appliances, office equipment, mobile communications and flash storage products.
Global manufacturers presenting at the show this year include 3LCD, Akai, BenQ, Hitachi, Intel, Pioneer, Sharp, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Toshiba. Gibson Guitars, which sent representatives to SINOCES as part of the CEA contingent, also arranged to have the U.S. blues group “Black Cat Bone” perform throughout the exposition.
Chinese manufacturers and service providers here include Aigo, Amoisonic, Aucma, Boyi Software, Changhong, Haier, Hisense, Lenovo, Newman, Ourgame, SABC, Skyworth, TCL, Tsinghua Tongfang, Xoceco and others.
Also attending the show are representatives from international retail companies including Best Buy, Carrefour, Karstadt Metro, Obi, Quelle, Wal-Mart and others. Chinese retailers who go to the show include Dazhong, Gome and Sunning, Ning said.
Todd Thibodeaux, CEA senior VP, said CEA has provided significant input to help raise the stature of the show and brought delegates to the show representing engineering and standards.
“We would like to see SINOCES become more than just a trade show” Thibodeaux said. “We would like to see it become a place for discussions of globally significant issues.”
