Czech and Japanese firms meet at reverse trade fair

16 Sep. 2015 | CzechInvest | JETRO and CzechInvest bring suppliers together with customers

České a japonské firmy se sešly na veletrhu naruby

Dozens of Japanese and Czech firms came together at the Brno exhibition grounds on 16 September 2015. On the occasion of the International Engineering Fair, the Czech branch of the Japanese trade agency, JETRO, organised an exhibition of components and materials used in the automotive industry, electronics and production of rail vehicles. CzechInvest helped JETRO with selecting the Czech participants.

The Japanese Component & Material Buyers‘ Exhibition had the objective of bringing suppliers from Central and Eastern Europe together with Japanese investors. The exhibition had an uncommon, reverse arrangement. Whereas at trade fairs firms ordinarily offer their products to potential customers, in Brno potential customers presented goods that they would need Czech firms to supply. A total of 126 business meetings between Japanese investors and local suppliers were held at the venue.

“We held similar conferences in cooperation with JETRO in the past,” says Karel Kučera, CEO of CzechInvest. “During an event several years ago, thirty percent of meetings led to the establishment of cooperation. Contracts in the value of more than CZK 600 million were subsequently concluded between Japanese and Czech companies.”

“Reverse trade fairs take place all over the world, mainly in Asia,” says Tadaši Murakami, director of the Japanese government agency JETRO, adding: “The exhibition of components is returning to the Czech Republic after a break of more than ten years and we have registered relatively strong interest both from exhibitors and among suppliers.” Companies participating in the conference are far from limited to the automotive industry. Besides a broad range of sectors, they also represent a diverse palette of countries. Events like the reverse trade fair put “international” in the name of the engineering trade fair. “Participants include fifteen exhibitors from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Great Britain, Germany, Romania, Holland and Belgium. On the other side there are more than forty two suppliers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia,” said Murakami. Thirty Czech suppliers presented themselves.

Japan is second behind only Germany in terms of the ranking of investments mediated by CzechInvest. Since 1993 Japanese companies have implemented 124 investment projects in the value of more than CZK 118 billion and creating 28,600 jobs.