Trade Expo Indonesia 2020: the very first B2B virtual fair

A great opportunity to relaunch Made in Indonesia exports

Covid-19 has led people and companies to reshape their activities, and the events sector in particular has understandably suffered the situation. However, despite the inability to attract and manage massive numbers of spectators and visitors in attendance (events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the UEFA European Football Championship have been delayed), the events sector is expressing its vitality despite current contingencies. After all, it is all about the ancestral human need for sociality.

In this respect, the Indonesian government is organizing from the 10th to the16th of November 2020 the 35th edition of one of the most important B2B fairs for the country, the “Trade Expo Indonesia Virtual Exhibition (TEI-VE) 2020”. The online event will host more than 400 companies from all over the world and this year’s theme will be "Sustainable Trade in The Digital Era". Thanks to 3D technology, buyers will be able to have access to a virtual exhibition platform, through which they can develop business networks and cultivate investment opportunities.

The event will also be an opportunity to learn more about Made in Indonesia products and, parallel to the exhibition, participants will be able to join round tables on trade and touris, encouraged by business matching sessions. Exhibitors will include leading catering, craft and fashion companies, as well as companies from the manufacturing and tertiary sectors. In order to cater for the lack of aggregation and networking opportunities, the event will include both virtual opening and closing ceremonies and supporting tools addressed to buyers and suppliers, with the aim of offering them a complete virtual experience on business and investment opportunities. Moreover, the event will witness the granting of the Primaniyarta Award, the highest national recognition by the Indonesian Government to the most successful exporters.

Therefore, the fair is a very important moment for Indonesia. In this regard, the Ministry of Trade reported the success of the previous edition that achieved transactions of $10.96 billion. An increase of 29.04%, if compared to the 2018 transactions of $8.49 billion. “With the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot stop" said Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto who then added "this is one of our efforts to fight the virus". Indeed, he hopes that the TEI-VE 2020 can mark the beginning of a new era for the world of B2B fairs, showing commercial operators that it is possible to activate international trade through virtual tools.

This opportunity fully represents the responsiveness and resilience that have characterized the ASEAN countries in previous months. In the new context imposed by the current health emergency, Indonesia has been able to react to the challenge by rethinking one of the most important moments for the country’s trade policy. The event will be full of novelties and contents, which could give interesting indications on the future of the events sector and on the state of international trade.