The 14th annual Sino International conference attracted some 900 freight forwarders to Shanghai. This was the second consecutive year in which the conference was held in Shanghai, at the JW Marriott Changfeng Park, where significant logistics networking took place, promoting business growth in the Far East.
Each year, WCA and the China International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFA) co-organise the Sino International conference as a global, open event for all independent freight forwarders, logistics vendors and industry-related companies. This three-day conference is an opportunity for all industry players to connect and expand business opportunities.
As per previous editions, this year’s conference convened with a record number of one-on-one meetings. Between the meetings, delegates had a full programme that included a gala dinner, which was hosted at the convention centre and the opening cocktail reception which was held at the JW Marriott.
CIFA is a national industrial organisation of China’s international freight forwarders, which was founded in Beijing on September 6th, 2000. CIFA is a social group with members that cover all provincial and municipal freight forwarders guilds, international freight forwarding enterprises and enterprises related to freight forwarding. At present, CIFA also accepts influential individuals in the freight forwarding industry, transportation and logistics field, bringing its total membership up to more than 6000 members.
Zhao Huxiang, president of CIFA, said, “Since the beginning of the year, China’s logistics and freight forwarding industry has continued to grow steadily, with annual revenues of enterprises over state’s designated scale growing by 8 per cent during the first nine months. The China market will still play a major role in the future.”
Last year’s conference marked the official launch of WCA’s ecommerce network. This year, e-Commerce director Alex Allen set up an impressive workshop area where he held back-to-back sessions for both existing ecommerce members and those interesting in joining. Allen and the founding members of WCA ecommerce have expressed excitement about new developments within the network in the new year.
As Dan March, CEO of WCA, put it, “Everyone at the conference should be capable of supplying ecommerce solutions.” At SINO International, WCA was poised to provide the training to enable its members to do just that.
More than 11,000 meetings were conducted by WCA delegates over the 3-day conference week. WCA thanks CIFA for its on-going support and for providing its members with further opportunities to engage on a global scale. Both parties look forward to another successful conference in 2018.
About the China International Freight Forwarders Association
The China International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFA) is a national industrial organisation of China’s international freight forwarders, which was founded in Beijing on September 6th, 2000. CIFA is a social group with members that cover all provincial and municipal freight forwarders guilds, international freight forwarding enterprises and enterprises related to freight forwarding. At present, CIFA also accepts influential individuals in the freight forwarding industry, transportation and logistics field, bringing its total membership up to more than 6000 members.
CIFA’s business is under the guidance of the Ministry of Commerce. As the bridge between the government and its members, CIFA actively carries out work in the tenet of reflecting appeals, providing service, standardising conduct, and managing the association to focus on legal, professional, pragmatic and innovative practices. The aim is to assist the government in enforcing the regulations of the freight forwarding industry; to maintain the business order of the international freight forwarding industry; to promote the communication and cooperation among the member enterprises; to safeguard the interests of the industry according to the law; to protect members’ legal rights and to boost the development of foreign trade and the international freight forwarding industry; to take part in international trade and transportation affairs; to carry out international commercial interaction and attend any international meetings on behalf of China’s freight forwarding industry as a non profit organisation.
Since the founding of CIFA 16 years before, the organisation has made huge advances acting as the bridge between the government and enterprises by listening attentively and reflecting the views of logistics enterprises and upholding their legal rights.
CIFA has been widely accepted and recognised by government, forwarding and logistics enterprises and all circles of the society. CIFA has contributed innovatively for the development of upgrading the forwarding and logistics industry, including hosting FIATA‘s Congress Meeting 2006 in Shanghai and successfully sponsoring the SINO-International Freight Forwarders Conference 12 times consecutively, to build the platform of communication and cooperation for the forwarders in China and all over the world, which in turn set up the brand as an international industry conference; participating in the revision of forwarding laws, regulations and industrial standards to further standardise management of the industry; popularising the utilisation of FIATA documents and upgrading the international competitiveness of the Chinese forwarding and logistics industry; carrying out credit-evaluating activities for enterprises and Chinese Top 100 Freight Forwarders ranking to promote the healthy development of the industry and enterprises; as well as organising the training and examinations for both international and domestic certifications to upgrade the overall quality of the whole industry.
Looking to the future, CIFA will focus on promoting the development of the for warding industry and strengthening the services of its members. Continuing in the name of its operational concepts of “service, responsibility, efficiency, harmony”, CIFA will strive to develop service trade, and promote trade growth mode transformation in order to promote China’s rapid transition from a trading country to a trading power. CIFA will strengthen the industry’s self-discipline and coordination management, create a market environment for fair competition to promote the development of China’s forwarding and logistics amongst the international community and boost the prosperity of the forwarding and logistics industry.
