The first China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) themed “Connecting the world for a shared future” kicked off in Beijing on November 28, 2023.  

The five-day event is an initiative to help maintain the resilience and stability of global industrial and supply chains, which are the important guarantee for global economic development. 

The expo was accompanied by a forum on global supply chain innovation and development. 

In this exclusive interview, Tomasz Szypula, president of the National Federation of Entrepreneurs – Ptak Warsaw Expo, a leading trade fair organizer in Europe, tells China Today how the CISCE can be a “perfect platform” for promoting new key technologies, products and services.

Tomasz Szypula, president of the Ptak Warsaw Expo  

Polish companies have shown great resilience in the face of the unprecedented external shocks over the past couple of years – the COVID-19 pandemic rocking supply chains and the war in Ukraine causing energy prices to rocket, Szypula told China Today. In response, the Polish government has given top priority to energy transition, which means creating a green supply chain for a more sustainable future. 

“The CISCE can be a perfect platform for promoting and exhibiting the new key technologies, products and services in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of global supply chains,” he said, echoing President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Ren Hongbi. Ren had said at the opening ceremony that the expo is a new open platform for the international business community to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in industrial and supply chains, and a global public good for the world. 

 “It is also an opportunity to restart our relations with the Chinese entrepreneurs, business partners and agents cooperating with us, and bring the exhibitors which are interested in business expansion in the European Union back to Poland,” Szypula added. 

Tomasz Szypula speaks at a sub-forum on international collaboration for clean energy supply chains on November 28, 2023. (Photos by Zhou Lin)   

Commenting on China’s fast economic rebound, Szypula said, “Everybody knows China is a leader of developing economies. Poland and China have a strategic partnership. So it is very important for Polish entrepreneurs and Chinese entrepreneurs to have business collaboration on the Chinese market.” 

Besides the Ptak Warsaw Expo, Szypula also represents Poland’s national association of small and medium-sized enterprises. “I have met many entrepreneurs and talked with them about their needs and expectations. They all hope to deepen cooperation with Chinese enterprises,” he said. 

Remarking that China has set a good example in terms of clean energy and the entire energy industry with cutting-edge technologies that the Polish market direly needs, he said there are some cooperative projects that need both sides to find the best solution for the most efficient production. Poland’s government is paying great attention to developing energy storage factories, biomass production and wind power plants and some wind power plants have already been built on the Polish coast. “We need to gain energy independence, and clean energy is an important way to reach the goal,” he stressed.  

He also pointed out Poland’s advantage in this area, “As the largest energy market in Central Europe, we can become a leader in the clean energy sector. For example, by combining with neighboring markets, we can develop into a larger market and Poland can become a hub in the Central European region, a hub for clean energy development and cooperation.”  

He thinks, for starters, cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland and China can be deepened since “there is a lot of consensus among these groups of enterprises in Poland and China.” Then “it is also important to advance the cooperation between institutions, such as the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Polish Chamber of Commerce, because they are both large institutions that can give guidance on the government’s policies and promoting collaboration with a large number of enterprises.”  

Szypula is no stranger to China’s four major exhibitions to promote trade in goods and services – the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, and the China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou. “These are (among) the greatest, the biggest venues in the world which provide very fruitful trade fair events,” he said, hoping to achieve more tangible outcomes during the first session of the CISCE.