After years of development, MIECF has become a high-level and efficient international networking platform, attracting every year a great number of exhibitors and buyers, showcasing the latest environmentally friendly products and services. Furthermore, MIECF also creates co-operation opportunities for both local and overseas enterprises, and offers unlimited business opportunities.

The Green Showcase this year has attracted the participation of over 450 exhibitors from more than 22 countries and regions. The provinces and regions in the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region (known as “9+2”) continue to participate and set up their own exhibition zone. The Themed Pavilion and the Countries/Regions Pavilions included the Ministry of Science and Technology´s Exhibition Area, Pan-PRD Region´s Exhibition Zone, Macao´s Exhibition Zone, International Exhibition Zone, Europe Pavilion, USA Pavilion and the VIP Exhibition Zone. Organisations and enterprises from Portuguese-speaking countries like Portugal and Brazil also participate in this year’s event again.

Mr Chan, from a building materials company, said that his company is participating for the second consecutive year. He participated for the first time last year with no related experience and established contacts with other companies through the Green Showcase, Green Matching and Green Forum. After that, his company became the first construction company engaging in house building in Mozambique. The government of Mozambique attaches great importance to the use of environmentally friendly construction materials, he said. Because of this, his company seeks co-operation opportunities with suppliers of green construction products. Mr. Chan stressed that, after a year of continuous efforts, his company has found two green construction materials brands from Mainland China and that the respective co-operation agreements were signed at this year´s MIECF, and become the sole agent for these two brands in Macao, Africa and the Portuguese-speaking countries.

Products of the afore-mentioned companies will be used in the Mozambique construction projects, he said. According to Mr Chan, his company has two construction projects in Mozambique. One of which, the construction of a resort, is already under way, while the other one is a residential complex with fifty thousand apartments. Being the agent of the products, he said that the local government attaches great importance to the green construction materials used, and that the products are very suitable for the market in terms of price and quality. Therefore, he is quite happy to be the agent for the said brands.

Mr Chan is pleased that his participation in last year´s MIECF contributed to his company´s co-operation with Mainland China´s brands and stated that Macao´s exhibitions, such as MIECF and the Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF) play an important role in assisting local enterprises to go global.

He said that environmentally friendly building materials are the trend of future development and that there is a great demand for these materials in the Third World Countries. After thecompletion of the projects in Mozambique, he would consider East Timor as the location for the next project, given that it is a new nation and the only Portuguese-speaking country in Asia. The development of that country will require a great quantity of green building materials in the future, he stressed.

On the other hand, another exhibitor is a consultant company providing indoor air quality testing and certification services for buildings. According to the persons in charge of that company, Ms Choi, Mr Leong and Mr Lau, their company provides a series of consulting and certification services, including design, on-site monitoring, laboratory design, energy date analysis, monitoring and assessment and green building certification.

They pointed out that all businesses expect return on their investment and that it is quite difficult to quantify the investment in indoor air quality, given that good air quality creates healthy and comfortable working environment to protect the health of the employees. Therefore, it is difficult to calculate the return in terms of money. However, some countries or regions provide certain preferential treatments to green buildings. For example, in Hong Kong, buildings which fulfil specific environmental guidelines may be exempted from the calculation of the gross floor area of certain areas.  In Mainland China, buildings that reach certain environmental standards can also enjoy tax incentives. All these are incentives provided to developers forbuilding green buildings, and also the market that their company is providing services in. The company has obtained the certification qualifications from the Hong Kong Accreditation Service. Their company can test and provide certification for indoor air quality equipment and that the certificates issued by their company are recognised worldwide. Such certificates are valid for one year, to ensure that the party concerned could maintain the indoor air quality.

They said that the main objective of their participation in MIECF is to enable more people to know about their company, and, in turn, they could also get a better understanding of the market situation, this being their biggest accomplishment. They believe that through the participation in MIECF, they could establish contacts with other companies and organization, to explore business opportunities.

In addition, a “Green Building Industry Networking Session” was held, to provide an opportunity for construction industry to exchange information about the latest technologies, and to explore business opportunities.

Mr Chan signed agreements to become the sole agent for the building materials of two Mainland China brands in Macao, Africa and the Portuguese-speaking countries during 2015MIECF.

Ms Choi, Mr Leong (second from left) and Mr Lau (first from right), hopes to make use of the opportunity provided by MIECF to establish links with other companies and organisationsto explore business opportunities.