Mice Affairs Media Correspondent, India, 29 Sep 2020
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition
Centre (Management) Limited ("HML") today said it welcomes the announcement
that the Hong Kong SAR Government will launch the Convention and Exhibition
Industry Subsidy Scheme (“Subsidy Scheme”) on 3rd October 2020. HML
Managing Director Ms Monica Lee-Müller said, ‘The Government’s launch of
the Subsidy Scheme in early October will help ease financial burdens on the
local convention and exhibition industry and help it attract domestic and
overseas exhibitors, buyers and conference delegates to Hong Kong,
strengthening the city’s competitiveness as the region’s leading convention and
exhibition hub.’
Ms Lee-Müller added, ‘With the
on-going pandemic situation overseas, countries are continuously updating their
inbound and outbound travel restrictions and compulsory quarantine
requirements. As such, many international exhibitions and conventions
originally scheduled for the second half of 2020 have been postponed or
cancelled. Mega exhibitions typically have long planning lead-times, and
re-launching them before the October 2021 deadline for the Subsidy Scheme may
prove challenging. However, we believe that once the pandemic is under
control, exhibition and convention organisers will waste no time bringing exhibitions
back onto their event calendars. To ensure that mega exhibitions and
international conventions return to Hong Kong after the pandemic, the industry
will continue to communicate closely with the Government so that timely actions
can be taken to maximize the impact of the Subsidy Scheme.’
The HK$1,020 million (US$131 million)
Subsidy Scheme to reinvigorate the convention and exhibition industry has been
set up under the Government’s Anti-epidemic Fund. Originally slated to be
launched in July 2020, it was postponed following the third wave of the
pandemic in the city, which caused the postponement of conventions and
exhibitions that were originally scheduled to take place from mid-July to
September. The Subsidy Scheme offers to cover a 100% venue rental cost for
organizers of exhibitions and international conventions held at Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition Centre and AsiaWorld-Expo.
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