The 88th session of the China Export Commodities Fair (CECF), which is held each spring and autumn in Guangzhou, closed yesterday with yet another record set for the value of export orders booked.

At the fair's closing, CECF deputy director Zhang Chaomei said export orders at the autumn session reached US$14.95 billion, a 9.6 per cent increase over the transaction volume recorded at the spring fair.

That brought the combined value of exports booked at this year's two fairs to almost US$28 billion-equivalent to 18 per cent of China's exports in the first eight months.

European Union buyers were the most active at this year's autumn session. They purchased exports worth US$4.12 billion, representing a 5.9 per cent increase over their spring orders. By comparison, sales to United States buyers grew 9.7 per cent to US$2.05 billion, while Hong Kong orders rose 5.7 per cent to US$1.25 billion.

The strongest gain was made by Southeast Asian buyers, reflecting the region's continuing recovery. Their purchases increased more than 16 per cent to US$1.58 billion.

Despite the numbers, the once central role of the fair in China's export sector is waning.

The fair is also no longer representative of the make-up of China's export sector. It continues to be dominated by state-owned foreign trade companies, through which all of China's exports were traditionally routed. These accounted for 69 per cent of all export orders booked at the autumn fair.

Foreign-invested enterprises, which in the real world account for almost half of China's exports, accounted for only 10.5 per cent of the fair's orders.

The mainland's emerging private sector is also given short shrift. Only 30 private companies attended the fair's autumn session - though that was at least double the number of privately held firms at the spring fair. They booked export orders worth US$110 million, accounting for less than 1 per cent of the total.

But to be fair to the fair, this poor representation of the private sector is largely the fault of the central government, which has only recently begun to award foreign trade licences to these firms.

With China's impending accession to the World Trade Organisation, organisers expect the number of private firms at future fairs to increase rapidly.

(South China Morning Post)