On September 23, the Nanjing Golden Autumn Economic and Trade Fair (referred to as the "Golden Autumn Fair"), which has been held consecutively for 37 years, kicked off as scheduled. More than 800 guests from home and abroad gathered in Jinling (Nanjing) to discuss new opportunities for opening-up, explore blue oceans for consumption, and pursue win-win outcomes in global business expansion.

Centered on the theme of Expanding Win-Win Cooperation through Two-Way Opening-up and Empowering Enterprises’ Global Expansion with Technology, this year’s fair released the industrialization catalog of Nanjing’s scientific and technological innovation achievements and the "1+4+N" overseas service system, and inaugurated the Nanjing Enterprise Overseas Service Alliance. During the project showcase segment, a total of 80 key projects were exhibited on site, with a combined investment of RMB 82.151 billion, closely focusing on three major investment tracks: industry, technology and services.

Nanjing: Connecting with the World

As Nanjing’s longest-running, largest and most influential economic and trade event, the Golden Autumn Fair has always served as a core platform for Nanjing to demonstrate its investment momentum, connect with global factor resources, and deepen two-way economic and trade cooperation. This edition follows the main lines of high-level opening-up, high-quality global expansion and high-grade consumption. It presents Nanjing’s achievements in high-quality development, including solid progress in fostering new-quality productive forces, strengthening and supplementing industrial chains, attracting foreign investment, supporting local enterprises to go global, and continuously optimizing the business environment.

Reporters from Shanghai Securities News learned that as a signature brand of Nanjing’s opening-up, the Golden Autumn Fair has directly benefited roughly 60% of Sino-foreign joint ventures, cooperative enterprises and wholly foreign-owned enterprises (the "three-capital enterprises"), 80% of contracted foreign capital and 90% of foreign-invested projects worth over USD 10 million. At this year’s fair, representatives of leading enterprises including BASF, Walmart and Canada Goose attended the event to share their plans and visions for investing in and expanding operations in Nanjing. The fair also welcomed guests from relevant Egyptian institutions. Taking this opportunity, Nanjing will deepen economic and trade exchanges with Egypt and North Africa, help local enterprises tap into markets in the Middle East and North Africa, and advance deeper industrial, trade and corporate exchanges and collaboration between the two sides.

A special exhibition of Nanjing’s economic and trade cooperation achievements was set up at the fair. It fully demonstrates Nanjing’s solid progress in pursuing high-quality development, nurturing new-quality productive forces and advancing high-level opening-up in recent years: from breakthroughs in cutting-edge sci-tech tracks to efforts to strengthen and complete advantageous industrial chains; from foreign enterprises expanding investment and production in the city to local enterprises venturing overseas for mutual empowerment; from continuous improvement of the urban business environment to in-depth regional coordination and international cooperation.

Scientific and technological innovation is the core engine driving economic growth, as well as a key pillar to enhance economic resilience and unlock development potential. At the fair, a batch of industrial-ready sci-tech achievements were unveiled, including AI automatic design toolchain for baseband circuits, 1,000-qubit dedicated quantum computer, high-performance aerospace special glass fiber fabric, fully autonomous industrial UAV operation system, and non-invasive brain-computer interface rehabilitation training system.

To smooth the path for laboratory research results to be translated into industrial applications and accelerate the conversion of innovation momentum into real productive forces, the fair released the industrialization catalog of scientific and technological innovation achievements. The catalog systematically integrates high-quality sci-tech resources across Nanjing, forms a complete chain covering research, achievement commercialization and market application, and enables industrial upgrading and high-quality urban development through scientific and technological innovation.

The "1+4+N" System Supports Enterprises Going Global

At a new starting point and height, Nanjing is forging cooperation partnerships with the world. The fair showcased 80 high-impact key projects featuring advanced technologies, strong industrial driving effects and promising prospects, with total investment of RMB 82.151 billion.

These projects align with Nanjing’s "1026" advanced manufacturing cluster system, concentrated in core sectors such as integrated circuits, new materials, intelligent manufacturing equipment, smart grids, biomedicine, and next-generation information communications, with growing industrial clustering effects. Among them, AI-related industries represented by software and information services as well as integrated circuits stand out, and their industrial clusters are taking shape at an accelerated pace.

To precisely remove bottlenecks and resolve pain points for enterprises in their full-chain global expansion, the fair launched Nanjing’s "1+4+N" enterprise overseas service system and established the Nanjing Enterprise Overseas Service Alliance:

• "1": A central government service hub, supported by a municipal working taskforce for enterprises’ overseas expansion and the launch of the Jinling Qihang comprehensive service platform for global business.

• "4": Four major physical carriers to deliver on-the-ground services in key markets including Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

• "N": Diverse market-oriented resources, bringing together cross-border e-commerce platforms, credit insurance, foreign-related legal services, international logistics and high-end talent service providers to build a diversified and efficient service pool and tackle various challenges encountered by enterprises operating overseas.

The fair links innovation outcomes to domestic industries while opening up new markets worldwide. Over the past 30-plus years, the Golden Autumn Fair has evolved from a commodity fair to an investment event, and further to an open platform for talent and capital introduction as well as innovation commercialization. Its transformation mirrors the continuous upgrading of Nanjing’s opening-up capacity.

"Thousands of years of cultural heritage shape a city with profound roots; clustered industries build a powerhouse of manufacturing; innovation creates opportunities for a promising future," said Zhou Hongbo, Member of the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, in his opening address. Nanjing will take this Golden Autumn Fair as a new starting point, fuel development through innovation and rally collaboration via opening-up. The city will strive to build a two-way opening hub with global agglomeration capacity and write a new chapter of win-win cooperation.

Source: Shanghai Securities News