Chinese technology companies are pulling out of the industry's biggest US trade fair because delegates cannot obtain visas. The move has fuelled fears that America risks losing business to rival international trade shows as a direct result of its immigration crackdown. It comes amid growing concern that the tough visa climate is making it hard for business generally to build relations with China and could cost the US a slice of the potentially valuable Chinese tourist market. With just six weeks to go before this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, as many as half the would-be Chinese delegates have had their visa applications turned down, organisers say.
Exhibition industry body proposed. China is expected to establish an industrial association for exhibitors next year, according to a leading official involved in the promotion of international trade. The move is seen as an effort to better regulate the domestic exhibition market and improve international co-operation in this field.
Mega exhibition centres in Hong Kong and Shenzhen look for unity. With the operators of nearly a million square metres of exhibition space in the Pearl River Delta increasingly desperate to find takers, Shenzhen is eager to join Hong Kong in an effort to grab a bigger share of an overcrowded market.Hong Kong's current exhibition space of 64,000 square metres is dwarfed by the 110,000 sq m coming on line in the new Shenzhen facility. And both look tiny compared with a 300,000 sq m behemoth being built in three phases in Guangdong.
