Advanced equipment makers meet in Foshan

Pearl River west area pushing forward with key three-day global exposition.

The fourth Exposition for Investment and Trade of Advanced Equipment Manufacturing on the West Bank of the Pearl River - also known as the 4th AEME - will take place from Monday to Wednesday in Foshan, southern Guangdong province, to boost the region's industrial upgrade and transformation.

All eight cities along the west bank of the Pearl River - Zhuhai, Foshan, Shaoguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Yangjiang, Zhaoqing and Yunfu - will set up their own pavilions to demonstrate the achievements of local businesses in advanced equipment development.

The total exhibition area will be around 30,000 square meters, according to the expo organizers.

The annual gathering for advanced equipment manufacturers is expected to attract more than 2,000 participants. More than 100 representatives from global leading advanced equipment manufacturing companies will attend the expo, according to the event organizers.

More than 300 leading Chinese business representatives will also show up at the event.

Cai Jiahua, vice-mayor of Foshan, said that the event will have two leading forums to be attended by industry and economic experts and key management of companies. Topics - covering fundraising, investments and patents - will be discussed during the forums.

"The 2018 AEME will be an important platform to demonstrate the industrial achievements in cities along the west bank of the Pearl River and attract top professionals from other parts of China and foreign countries," Cai said.

"It will also promote the upgrading of the advanced equipment manufacturing industry on the west bank of the Pearl River, to develop the region into a modern industrial center with global influence," he added.

"The advanced industrial manufacturing cluster on the west bank of the Pearl River will play a key role in supporting the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area."

Cai revealed that a total of 470 items developed by 164 companies - ranging across nine fields including new energy vehicles, robots, energy saving and environmental protection equipment, general aviation, top-quality medical equipment, sophisticated marine engineering and of shore wind power production products - will be displayed at the expo.

Eighteen companies in Foshan will demonstrate 44 items including industrial robots, smart production lines and hydrogen energy equipment. One group, Simcheng, will bring its latest polypropylene film production line and solution, which in China broke the previous monopoly held by foreign companies, to the expo.

HSG Laser in Foshan will bring to the event its smart and digitalized medal cutting and welding equipment, which combines laser cutting, bending and welding into one machine. Another company, SiE, will display its unmanned internet production line at the expo.

During the three-day show, a total of 248 projects will be signed between companies and eight cities along the Pearl River's west bank with investments totaling 226.4 billion yuan ($32.94 billion), according to Cai.

Among them, five projects will have total investment of more than 10 billion yuan each, while 53 projects will have total investment between 1 billion yuan and 10 billion yuan each. Country Garden, one of the largest property developers in China, plans to launch a 30 billion yuan robot production base in Foshan.

FAW-Volkswagen will invest 11.8 billion yuan in an electric vehicle and high voltage battery project in Foshan. DJI, a leading Chinese drone maker, will develop a research and production center with a total investment of 2 billion yuan in Foshan.

Cities along the west bank of the Pearl River play a major role in supporting Guangdong's economic development. The Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong released an action plan in December last year to boost advanced equipment manufacturing in eight cities from 2018 to 2020.

The plan said that advanced equipment manufacturing businesses in the eight cities will achieve a total industrial added value of 1.2 trillion yuan from 2018 to 2020.

Officials said machine tools production, robots and new energy vehicle development in the eight cities will take a leading role in China by 2020.

They said the annual industrial output value of the equipment manufacturing industry along the west bank of Pearl River will reach 2 trillion yuan in 2020.