The first Yantai International Precision Procurement Festival kicks off in Huang-Bohai New Area on March 21. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The first Yantai International Precision Procurement Festival, under the guidance of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, hosted by the Yantai government and organized by the Yantai bureau of commerce, kicked off in Huang-Bohai New Area on March 21.

The event brought together more than 300 international buyers from 32 countries and over 300 representatives from the city's foreign trade enterprises, with nearly 1,000 people coming together to explore new opportunities for cooperation.

It adopted an "onsite negotiation plus factory inspection" model to facilitate in-depth communication between prospective cooperative enterprises. This not only reflected the new embodiment of the "Yantai Model", but also represented an attempt to create more precise and efficient arrangements.

Wang Hong, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce, said the procurement festival is an innovative attempt by Shandong to meet international demands, seize upon new opportunities for foreign trade development, create new modes of procurement, and create a new trajectory for digital trade.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Yantai being approved as one of the first open coastal cities in the country and is the year that Yantai's GDP surpassed 1 trillion yuan ($138.9 billion). The city will organize 10 overseas investment promotion events, entrust 100 well-known business associations to carry out professional investment promotion, and select 1,000 enterprises among both the top 500 enterprises and other leading enterprises in various industries for investment promotion.

"After the event, we will continue to strengthen our presence in various industries in Yantai and organize buyers to engage in on-site procurement," said He Jiufeng, chairman of Guangzhou Guangmao Tianxia Network Technology Co Ltd. In the future, Guangmao Tianxia will continue to strengthen its presence in the Yantai market, developing a one-stop F2B2C trading platform for products and industrial and supply chains for various foreign trade bases in the city.