[2020/08/11] Committee for the Development of Conventions and Exhibitions Held the First Plenary Ordinary Meeting of 2020
The Committee for the Development of Conventions and Exhibitions held its first plenary ordinary meeting for this year on 10th August at the Multi-function Conference Hall on the 19th Floor of China Civil Plaza. Many ideas were brought up by members of the Committee. The Chairman of the Committee cum the Secretary for Economy and Finance of the Macao SAR Lei Wai Nong express gratitude for the opinions and said that the government would continue listening to the industries’ voices and joining hands with them to grow together.
The meeting was moderated by Lei Wai Nong. According to him, Macao’s conference and exhibition sector (or MICE industry) was resilient to the novel coronavirus pneumonia’s impact on the city and it coped with the harshness with creativity. With the support and motivation of the Macao SAR Government, multiple events starting from June this year were held in a way that combines online and offline activities. In the meantime, online training courses will be held to reinforce the industry’s professionalism. Lei expected that many major MICE events in the city would soon feature more and more online components and online trainings would continue to be held to enhance the industry’s competitiveness, so as to allow industry to keep growing in terms of professionalism and marketization. In addition, the Committee will also listen to the voices of the industries and pro-actively adapt to the latest trends of the market.
Members of the Committee reported the difficulties and challenges brought to the MICE sector by the pandemic, in particular the downsizing of MICE events and decreased income of MICE practitioners. They also gave suggestions regarding how to promote Macao’s presence as a safe city to the international market, the importation of more professional conferences, intensification of professional trainings for MICE practitioners, the timing of marketization of the city’s MICE businesses, and how to direct events’ participants to local communities.
According to Lei Wai Nong, the city’s MICE industry is expecting a recovery as the restriction of travel between the mainland and Macao is gradually eased. Meanwhile, resources relevant to tourism, conference and exhibition and commerce which are now respectively managed by the Macao Government Tourism Office and Macao Trade and Investment Promotion (IPIM) will be merged and more collaborations will be carried out to help the local economy rebound.
Secretary General of the Committee cum President of IPIM Lau Wai Meng said that IPIM was re-initiating MICE projects for the second half of this year and arranging relevant online exhibitions and matching. He also shared the ICCA Statistics Report 2019 at the meeting and expressed his gratitude to the city’s MICE industry and all other sectors for their concerted effort which put Macao among the top 50 worldwide in ICCA ranking.
Committee for the Development of Conventions and Exhibitions held the first plenary ordinary meeting of 2020
Committee for the Development of Conventions and Exhibitions held the first plenary ordinary meeting of 2020
