Participants pose for a group photo at the sourcing event in Wuxi. [Photo/WeChat account: news-wuxixinwen]
More than 60 buyers from 25 countries and regions traveled from Yiwu, Zhejiang province, to Wuxi, Jiangsu province, on Sept 4 for a sourcing event focused on smart manufacturing.
The delegation, comprising purchasers from the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Yemen, among others, held dialogues with 168 local exporters.
Within an hour of face-to-face meetings, the value of intended procurement reached $32 million. The event was the second such matchmaking effort between the two regions, following a similar session in Yiwu in late June that generated $22 million in intended orders.
This time, over 50 of the buyers opted to visit Wuxi factories for on-site inspections. Several African and Middle Eastern purchasers told organizers they were particularly interested in AI-powered products, including electric scooters, robotic dogs and smart agricultural machinery, citing stable quality and competitive pricing.
Wuxi's foreign trade totaled 593.48 billion yuan ($88.42 billion) in the first seven months of 2026, up 28.9 percent year-on-year, with exports driving much of the growth.
The city is also deepening its ties with Egatee, a cross-border B2B platform focused on African markets, which set up a local office in May. The platform now works with Wuxi's trade service center to build a digital-plus-physical export channel.
"We're bringing buyers to the factories, not just to trade fairs," said Zheng Dong, Egatee's vice-president. "The goal is to turn one-time meetings into long-term supplier relationships."
The shift from "Wuxi going to Yiwu" to "Yiwu buyers coming to Wuxi" reflects a broader strategy to anchor foreign procurement in the city's manufacturing base, rather than relying solely on intermediary markets.
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