Exhibition industry was affected gravely by the SARS outbreak, but
the trade in Hong Kong and the mainland will be robust again when
the disease is fading away, said Katy Lam, general manager of Messe
Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, an international exhibition organizer.
"We are actually in a very preferential position in Hong Kong. Many
of the world leading garment-makers have buyers based in Hong
Kong," said Lam.
Regarding this year's exhibition market, Katy Lam said it is hard
to have long predictions right now, first of all because of SARS
outbreak.
"We don't have exhibitions until October 2003, but I quite believe
that with the help of the WHO and also the medical field around the
world, we will get over the hard period sooner or later," said
Lam.
"There are indeed panic at the moment because we don't know till
now the exact cause of the disease and how to control it," she
said.
"I
think the most important thing for the economy is to restore the
confidence of the people, and of course the immediate importance is
to find out ways to control the disease," she said.
Lam believed that the confidence will be restored. "Business today
is global, to stop international trade is almost impossible for the
long run," she said, adding "My personal hope is that in two or
three months the problem of the disease could be settled."
As
one of the oldest exhibition organizers, Messe Frankfurt has been
exploring business opportunities in China for dozens of years.Lam,
who is responsible for the market of Hong Kong and south China,
said fair market of Hong Kong and the mainland is quite
different.
"Some of the topic can make success in Hong Kong but may not in the
mainland, and vice versa," she said.
"One reason is Hong Kong's market has developed for many years
already, thus it's hard to find good new topics of trade show in
Hong Kong. But in mainland, the exhibition market is quite new.
There are many new topics that we can give."
Lam said the Hong Kong fair is more international and it attracts
many more people from around the world. For the fairs in Chinese
mainland, most of them are for the domestic market, as well as for
the domestic buyers.
"Exhibition industry is a really fast growing industry in Chinese
mainland, so you can see a lot of fairs with same or similar topic
were held at one time at different cities," Lam said,"I believe in
a few years only the quality events will stand out."
Hong Kong is the region that has this trade fair business much
earlier than the other part of mainland, so Hong Kong is in a very
mature situation in terms of trade fairs, lam said.
"We are monitoring everyday on what new topic we can put into the
market, and we judge by the market demand. We must make sure the
exhibitors can benefit from it."
"I
believe China will be one of the countries that will create a lot
more new trade fairs," she added.
(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2003)