Three trade fairs – the 27th Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF), the Macao Franchise Expo 2022 (MFE) and the 2022 Portuguese Speaking Countries Products and Services Exhibition (Macao) (PLPEX) – will be held concurrently at the Venetian’s Cotai Expo from tomorrow through Saturday.
The three-day expos, which will take place both online and offline, aim to help participating traders connect more efficiently with local small-medium enterprises (SMEs), give full play to the collaboration of meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE), as well as tourism, and enable the “multiplier effect” of the MICE economy to benefit a wider range of areas and fields in Macao while boosting appropriate economic diversification in the city.
As of yesterday, more than 1,200 exhibitors had signed up for online events, such as online exhibitions, online business matching, online contract signing, live streaming, and interactions with on-site exhibitions, with about 3,700 online exhibits.
Over 1,000 exhibitors have also registered for offline events. Online and on-site exhibitors are from mainland China, Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal, Hong Kong and Macao, covering industries such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), technological innovation, culture and creativity, food and catering and retail.
In order to further improve the digital experience, this year’s expos will apply 5G communications technology to live streaming and field visits.
The trade fairs will comprise over 1,800 booths with a total exhibition area of 29,300 square metres, including 389 booths for local SMEs covering various areas including a regional cooperation platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, Industry + MICE collaboration, big health industry, cultural and creative industries, high-tech industry and support for SMEs to promote Macao’s appropriate economic diversification.
The three expos will only be open to traders tomorrow, but they will be open to the general public on Friday and Saturday.
Free shuttle buses will be available for participants travelling between the exhibition venue and the peninsula’s centre and northern district as well as Taipa.
Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) Acting President Vincent U U Sang said that this year’s three expos will feature “enhancements and improvements”, namely enhancing local SMEs’ development, strengthening the development of key industries, namely TCM, technological innovation, culture and creativity, food and catering, and retail services, and enhancing the development of the MICE and tourism industries, while the event’s improvement refers to the high degree of professionalism of the three expos.
U said that the number of booths for SMEs this time has increased from 80 to 180, adding that 303 enterprises from the four key industries will participate in the three simultaneous expos, during which 56 thematic activities will be held.
U also said that there will be 181 exhibitors from the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang as well as the municipality of Shanghai.
According to U, the MIF and MFE expos have cancelled some of their previous years’ arrangements such as receptions and banquets, but they have strengthened the promotion of technology and multimedia to save costs and raise efficiency. The budgets of the two exhibitions were reduced by 19.68 per cent and 12.79 per cent respectively, while the PLPEX budget was increased by 1.13 per cent as some of its facilities have been upgraded, The Macau Post Daily reported.
