Ningbo firms lead China's bid into UN aid market

China is preparing a coordinated push into the UN humanitarian supply chain as a Ningbo-led cluster of companies heads to Geneva this week to attend AidEx 2025.

The event will be held on Oct 22 and 23 at the United Nations' European headquarters, widely regarded as the world's largest marketplace for public-sector emergency procurement. AidEx attracts more than 1,000 participating institutions each year, several of them are major UN agencies such as UNOPS, UNFPA, UNHCR and IOM, and is viewed as a bridge into the high-barrier UN procurement system. 

Fifteen Chinese companies will take part this year, nine of them from Ningbo, representing emergency response equipment, medical and health services, household appliances, and engineering machinery. Their participation marks the first time China has organized a dedicated national pavilion at AidEx rather than appearing only through scattered booths.

"UN procurement is a stress test of whether companies can operate by international rules — but also a strategic launchpad for moving up the global value chain," said Lu Ruiguang, project manager at the UN Office for Project Services in China. "The stage now belongs to Chinese companies, and the spotlight is on Ningbo manufacturing."

Ningbo has been actively developing a UN procurement service ecosystem since 2023 — hosting Asia's first IPS conference and conducting training for exporters — in an effort to increase China's share of the UN's nearly $30 billion annual procurement market, which remains below five percent.