2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair Opens

Source from:  Special Report by TobaccoChina Online 11/17/2004

The 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair opened in Kunming City of southwest China's Yunnan Province on November 16, with the participation of more than 150 specialized companies including tobacco manufacturers, leaf tobacco producers and traders, tobacco machinery manufacturers and producers of cigarette materials. [img border=0 hspace="4" vspace="4" align="left" src=http://www.tobaccochina.com/english/picture/041116kunming.jpg] The Kunming 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair has been the first major gathering of the global tobacco industry so far in 2004, providing a fine opportunity for exchange between China's tobacco industry and its counterparts from other parts of the world. In an address to the opening ceremony, Yunnan Provincial Governor Xu Rongkai said that the tobacco industry is a traditional industry, and that at a time when world trade has been continuously strengthened and when trade exchange has been accelerated around the world, the symposium and tradefair will be highly influential and will serve as a link for exchange between China and the rest of the world. Known as the kingdom of tobacco, Yunnan is the largest tobacco-producing region in China. Xu expressed the hope of the holding of the 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair in Yunnan will contribute to enabling the participating enterprises to exchange information and learn more from one another. Speaking on the same occasion, Zhang Baozhen, deputy director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), expressed appreciation to the Chinese Communist Party Yunnan Provincial Committee and Yunnan Provincial Government for their support to the 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair. Zhang recalled that the BMG successfully sponsored the Hong Kong International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefairs respectively in 1999 and 2001, making great achievements. "Along with changes in the trade environment, the tobacco industry needs to establish a new platform for the tobacco industry to exchange information and experience. The Kunming 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair just serves as an opportunity for exchange between the participating enterprises and also for reunion among olds friends and meeting with new friends," Zhang said. He said that the Kunming 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair is a major event in the development of the global tobacco industry, and that the Chinese side will stick to the principle of mutual benefit in creating a win-win situation, and will not oppose or avoid competition, which will be eventually benefitial to development. "As a big family, the global tobacco industry will have better development in future," Zhang said. The Kunming 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair is sponsored by the World Tobacco magazine. Also speaking at the opening ceremony, World’s Tobacco's circulation and exhibition director Ian Faux said that the more than 150 participating enterprises will show their products and services at the Kunming 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair, which will provide firsthand information for the development of the tobacco industry, particularly for the tobacco industry of China which is a fundamental structural reform characterized with corporate merger and reorganization. The products and services of the tobacco industry shown at the current symposium and tradefair include leaf tobacco supply and tobacco packaging equipment, factory machinery, chemical preparations, equipment for chemical tests and experiments, cigarette materials, filter tips, cigarettes, cigars and cut tobacco. The appearance of the many participating enterprises at the Kunming 2004 International Tobacco Symposium & Tradefair just embodies the great importance attached to it by the tobacco industry. The participating enterprises include the four global tobacco giants of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's well-known leaf tobacco companies such as Dimon, Universal and Continental, and other relevant enterprises such as Filtrona International Ltd., Stora Enso Packaging Cardboard company, the French purchasing group and KC automation company. Besides, the participating enterprises also include a large number of big Chinese enterprises such as China National Tobacco Import-Export Group, China National Leaf Tobacco Corporation, Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Company and China National Tobacco Materials Supply Company as well as Hongta Blue Eagle Paper Company, Kunming Shipping Machinery and Ruifeng Papermaking Co., Ltd. Enditem