Overseas exhibitors at the China Hi-Tech Fair in Shenzhen stressed how important the Chinese market is to tech firms and scientific institutions seeking to maintain an advantage against global competition, and said they hope to better leverage its rich resources to enhance their innovation chains.
A vital platform for showcasing tech developments and for exchanges, this year’s exhibition, which kicked off on Friday, has brought together exhibitors from over 30 overseas countries and regions. It also features a dedicated area for participants involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to expand their collaboration.
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Yan Gengzhen, regional director of Canada-based directional microphone producer Soundskrit, said China is home to the startup’s main supplier and its key potential clients. The Chinese market is therefore a focal point for the company's future growth, he added.
The rapid development of smart equipment has created increasing demand for high-quality audio inputs. Soundskrit’s product can help improve smart equipment’s performance in voice recognition, thus enhancing its ability to interact with humans, Yan said.
Yan, whose company is seeking to strike deals with industry leaders in smart phones and drones, said that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has many potential clients in niche sectors like smart earphones, artificial intelligence glasses and surgical robots. He has also identified demand from within the automotive, sports, and livestreaming industries.
Alex Wu, a manager at Nitto (China) New Materials — the China branch of Japanese conglomerate Nitto Group — said that amid the new technological wave, traditional Japanese enterprises are actively exploring opportunities in areas like new materials.
Compared with the recently concluded China International Import Expo in Shanghai, which focuses more on trade, the high-tech fair features new technologies and new releases of products, and serves as an opportunity for the world to feel the pulse in China’s latest tech trends.
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Moreover, as China is formulating its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), Nitto hopes to seize opportunities in the world’s second largest economy arising from the country’s new stage of development.
China accounts for 40 percent of Nitto Group’s global business. Wu mentioned that as a major export market for Japan, China is also gradually becoming a key supplier of emerging technologies.
Amid the rapid evolution of technologies, every country is aware of the shifts occurring and does not want to miss out on any opportunities, he said.
Loh Wye Boon, deputy director of technology development at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said this marks the university’s first participation in the fair over the past few years, after the event was suspended in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United States has been raising the barriers to technology imports, and thanks to Nanyang University’s longstanding influence in Asia, it is reestablishing its connections with China and other Eastern markets through the fair, Loh said.
He added that Chinese technologies have been experiencing another boom since the pandemic, particularly in the fields of AI and robotics. Under the current international landscape, global tech companies are seeking to diversify their market distribution, and this further highlights the importance of the Chinese market, he said.
