Promotion event for 2023 China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair held in Beijing

Photo shows a promotion event for the 2023 China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair held in Beijing on Oct. 20, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Bo)

A promotion event for the 2023 China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair was held in Beijing on Oct. 20.

The event was supported by the Hebei Academy of Sciences, the industry and information technology department of north China's Hebei Province, and the provincial commerce department.

"The China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair is the only professional wire mesh exhibition in the world," Liu Libin, head of the publicity department of the Party committee of Hengshui, said at the promotion event.

After 22 years of development, the fair has become an important international platform for promoting wire mesh culture, showcasing high-end technological products, and expanding cooperation and exchanges, Liu added. It's also a vital platform for Hengshui's opening up, exchanges and cooperation, and economic and trade investment.

Liu Libin, head of the publicity department of the Party comitte of Hengshui, delivers a speech at a promotion event for the 2023 China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Bo)

The 2023 China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair is being held at the Anping International Exhibition Center in Anping county, Hengshui city from Oct. 22 to 24, said Cao Xiangdong, Party chief of Anping county, at the promotion event. Cao added that a series of commercial activities will be held during the fair.

This year's fair comprises 420 exhibition booths, double last year's number. Notably, 138 customers from countries including Russia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia have confirmed their participation.

The wire mesh sector has become a characteristic industry and a pillar industry of Anping county.

"Our county's wire mesh products are widely used in transportation, water conservancy, animal husbandry, architectural decoration and other sectors, as well as high-end sectors like aerospace and petrochemical industries," said Cao.

Cao Xiangdong, Party chief of Anping county, delivers a speech at a promotion event for the 2023 China Anping International Wire Mesh Fair. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Bo)

According to Cao, there are over 13,000 wire mesh enterprises in Anping, with 210,000 people working in the wire mesh industry. The county has over 12,000 wire mesh sales outlets nationwide.

Anping's wire mesh industry chain covers all production processes, making the county a distribution center of wire mesh products with the most varieties and specifications nationwide. Anping has over 60,000 sets of wire mesh equipment and produces more than 1.2 billion square meters of wire mesh every year.

In recent years, Anping has taken various measures to promote the high-quality development of its wire mesh industrial cluster. The county has established a wire mesh industry academy and nurtured five national-level "little giant" companies, a term that refers to novel and elite small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that specialize in a niche market, boast cutting-edge technologies and show great potential in the sector. It has also advanced the high-quality construction of a provincial-level high-tech industrial development zone that is home to more than 228 enterprises, and built a national-level logistics park and a cross-border e-commerce industrial park.

Photo shows wire mesh products from Anping. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Bo)

Data showed that in 2022, the operating revenue of the wire mesh industry in Anping county reached 88.3 billion yuan (about $12.06 billion), and the figure is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan by the end of this year.

"Anping enjoys a solid foundation for the wire mesh industry and has achieved remarkable results in foreign trade," said Li Dongliang, an official with the Hebei provincial commerce department, at a press conference during the promotion event. In the first seven months of 2023, Anping's imports and exports expanded by 14.2 percent to 2.88 billion yuan.

In recent years, Hebei has introduced a series of policies and measures to promote the development of characteristic industrial clusters, specially formulating customized plans for Anping's wire mesh industrial cluster to continuously enhance its core competitiveness and strive to build a 100 billion-level wire mesh industrial cluster, said Su Huibin, an official with the industry and information technology department of Hebei.

A ceremony is held during a promotion event to induct Anping county's "little giant" companies in the wire mesh industry into an enterprise service platform of People's Daily Online. (People's Daily Online/Zhou Bo)

The promotion event included a roundtable meeting that aims to further promote the development of Anping's wire mesh industry.

In addition, a ceremony was held at the promotion event to induct Anping's "little giant" companies in the wire mesh industry into an enterprise service platform of People's Daily Online. The platform was built to serve the high-quality development of characteristic industries in counties across China and support more SMEs in becoming "little giant" companies and bolstering digital transformation.

Aerial photo shows Anping county in Hengshui city, north China's Hebei Province. (Photo courtesy of the convergence media center of Anping county)