On 20 October, the 2026 Zhaoqing Hardware & Building Materials Industry Expo opened in Zhaoqing, hosted by Zhaoqing Import and Export Chamber of Commerce and Jinli Town Hardware Industry Association of Gaoyao District, Zhaoqing. Relevant leading officials of Zhaoqing City, persons in charge from municipal departments including the Bureau of Commerce, counties (cities, districts), Zhaoqing High-tech Zone and the Guangdong-Guangxi Cooperation Special Experimental Zone (Zhaoqing) attended the event. Zhao Huazhong, Executive Chairman, and Anita Kuang, Executive Secretary-General of the Greater Bay Area Importers and Exporters Association, attended the opening ceremony on behalf of the Chamber.

As Zhaoqing’s first professional exhibition focusing on the coordinated development of industrial, supply and market chains for the hardware and building materials sector, the expo themed “Wisdom Forges the Future” brought together national, provincial and municipal industry organisations, consular officials from foreign consulates in Guangzhou including Saudi Arabia and Russia, representatives of Hong Kong and Macao institutions as well as overseas chambers of commerce, together with domestic and overseas buyers, exhibitors, cross-border e-commerce platforms, financial, legal and other service institutions, and media representatives. It serves as a key platform for industrial display, supply-demand matching and international trade cooperation in the hardware and building materials sector, helping characteristic industrial belts in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area smooth the domestic and international dual circulation.

Liu Jingbo, Member of the Standing Committee of the Zhaoqing Municipal Party Committee and Vice Mayor of Zhaoqing Municipal People’s Government, attended and addressed the opening ceremony. He stated that Zhaoqing thoroughly implements the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the strategic arrangements of the Party Central Committee, fully follows the work requirements of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, and targets the goal of accelerating the development into a provincial emerging trade city. The city promotes the upgrading of advanced manufacturing and expands markets through opening-up, and vigorously advances the initiative of “Guangdong Goods Go Global”. As the gateway hub of the Greater Bay Area connecting the southwest of China, Zhaoqing boasts a solid industrial foundation for hardware and building materials, favourable geographical location linking domestic and overseas markets and strong momentum in foreign trade. It is well-positioned to receive global orders and support direct sourcing from origin. The expo is a practical measure for Zhaoqing to advance the transformation and upgrading of competitive industries such as hardware and building materials, build featured exhibition and exchange platforms, and construct bridges for production and sales matching. It helps local enterprises explore new markets, optimise products and strengthen brands. Domestic and overseas merchants are warmly welcome to visit Zhaoqing, deepen exchanges and pursue win-win cooperation.

Qin Zhanxue, President of China Building Materials Circulation Association, and Wang Shuai, General Manager of Northwest Guangdong Region, 1688 Greater Guangdong Division, delivered speeches respectively on green and intelligent transformation of the building materials industry and opportunities in digital foreign trade. They called on enterprises to consolidate manufacturing foundations and leverage digital tools to boost competitiveness in the global market. Zhang Longwei, Chairman of Guangdong Yidun Doors and Windows Co., Ltd. and representative of exhibitors, shared the development idea of rooting in local industrial clusters and scaling up intelligent manufacturing. Representatives from Vietnam Guangdong Chamber of Commerce and Jordanian buyers released overseas procurement demands for hardware, building materials and home supporting products on site, providing important references for local enterprises to connect with overseas markets.

The two-day expo covered an exhibition area of 3,000 square metres, with 70 industrial enterprises above designated size showcasing their products. Four exhibition zones were set up: Premium Hardware, Green Building Materials, Intelligent Equipment and Trade in Services. The event selectively invited more than 500 professional buyers from home and abroad for on-site visits and business matching, fully demonstrating Zhaoqing’s complete industrial chain, ranging from small hardware parts to home interior spaces and engineering construction, and further to domestic and global markets. Meanwhile, three special sessions were organised: Overseas Procurement, Real Estate & Infrastructure Procurement and Cross-border E-commerce Sourcing. Around overseas markets, bulk engineering procurement and digital trade scenarios, buyers, suppliers, platforms and professional service institutions held targeted negotiations. A free exchange session was also arranged to promote in-depth communication between suppliers and buyers, extending from product display to channel co-construction, service docking and long-term cooperation.

Building on the matching outcomes of this exhibition, as a hub chamber platform for the Greater Bay Area to connect domestic and overseas markets and coordinate “9+2+N” economic and trade resources, the Chamber will continue to collaborate with import and export chambers across cities in the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong and Macao industrial and commercial societies and overseas economic and trade institutions. It will further cultivate featured competitive industrial belts in the Greater Bay Area, open up docking channels linking industrial clusters with global markets, support advanced manufacturing clusters in the Bay Area to deeply integrate into global trade networks, and serve the overall goal of high-level opening-up and high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.