Slow boat to Beijing

4 July 2002




With our review of the Texcare Asia exhibition and an interview with Mike Kalli, this edition of LCN has something of an Eastern flavour to it. Mike is managing director of Ideal Manufacturing and is taking significant strides into the market in Hong Kong. His comments make valuable reading for anybody thinking of starting or doing more business in the region.

While he acknowledges the uncertainty that existed before Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control, Mike is more than enthusiastic about the current and future possibilities not only in Hong Kong but, significantly, in China. "Every time I visited Beijing from 1993 to now," he said, "I have seen a dramatic transformation in the skyline". Who would now say the pace of development in China is going to do anything other than quicken? For many companies exhibitions are crucial to their commercial plans, and May's Texcare Asia show in Hong Kong proved this. Santi Carol, North America and Far East director with the laundry equipment manufacturer Girbau, was typical in his thoughts about the recent exhibition. He said: "This show has completely exceeded our expectations and we are very positive about our experience here… There is no doubt that the laundry industry needs an international event in Asia." However, questions should be asked about the timing and venue of the next Texcare Asia exhibition. Messe Frankfurt, the organiser, has said the next Texcare show will be in Frankfurt in 2004, and it would like its next Asian show in 2006. This arrangement obviously suits the existing biennial exhibition cycle alternating between Germany and Asia, but is it suited to global commercial realities? It is virtually impossible to predict with any accuracy how quickly emerging markets will develop. Any number of factors can confound the pundits' best guesses. However, the Beijing Olympics in 2008 is about as cast in stone as you get, and this single event will drive growth. Yan Long, chairman of China Light Industry Machinery Association, said: "In Beijing alone the number of hotels is set to double before 2008, with existing ones primed for renovation and modernisation." That is nothing less than spectacular in anybody's book.

Here's the crux: by 2006, 500 new hotels will have been built for the Olympics Games in 2008, which means 2004 is the crucial year for making decisions. If Messe Frankfurt delays Texcare Asia until 2006 it will have missed the junk.

   Glenn Tomkins (u-gtomkins-wilmington-co-uk-u)



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