New Delhi, May 22, 2015
Over Three hundred fifty CEOs representing trade fair industry worldwide including major players like Reed Exhibitions, Messe Munich, ITE, Messe Nürnberg, UBM, Cologne Messe, Messe Düsseldorf Deutsche Messe, Fiera Milano, India Trade Promotion Organization, industry associations like CII, FICCI, Assocham, SIAM, Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, and others beside private players were in attendance at the 5th IEIA Open Seminar at India Expo Mart – the state of the art exhibition complex located at Greater Noida on 8th and 9th May 2015.
Important topics were discussed ranging from International perspectives on India, use of modern technologies & solutions for faster turnaround, Human Resource Development as growth stimulator, role of service providers as partners, how to ensure outstanding customer experience to visitors and develop synergies between MICE and exhibitions.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony Mr. J. S. Deepak, Chairman and Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organization and Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry said that “that time for Exhibition industry has come and Exhibitions & Conventions are very important drivers of trade and economy”. He further mentioned that the Government is aware of the challenges exhibition organizers face in India including infrastructural deficiencies, and multiple clearances they have to go through and assured that the government is keen to resolve them. The Government is working on providing state of the art infrastructure facility for trade fairs and conventions in twenty of India’s state capital cities including India through its own agencies as well as through PPP. Government’s aim is to also provide single window clearance even for exhibition industry.”
He mentioned that support is available through incentives and subsidies to compensate for shortcomings and providing a level playing field (lack of infrastructure, high cost of finance, transaction cost) and these will come to exhibition industry as well.
Earlier Mr. Rakesh Kumar, President of IEIA, said, “Over the last few years the Indian exhibition industry has been steadily growing at around 15%.” He further mentioned that, in line with projected economic growth of Indian Economy by 7.5% by IMF, IEIA has set a target for the exhibition industry to achieve exhibition space sales of 15,000 crore by the end of 2017 fiscal year generating business enquiries worth one lakh twenty thousand crore in 3,700 hundred shows with net exhibition area of 750 sqm and above to be organized in the country. He suggested each smart city government plans to develop must have an exhibition and convention centre in place.
During the event an industry study report ‘Exhibition Industry in India- Facts and Figures’- carried out by Trade Fair Times for IEIA by Mr. J. S. Deepak.
According to the report there are 950 exhibition organizers in India who organized 3,569 exhibitions on 77 themes in 88 cities. About 4,43,000 sqm of built up exhibition space is currently available in India and over 80,000 crore of investment is planned to develop an additional six lakh square meters of space across 13 cities expected to be available by 2022. CCI Newswire
