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Taipei to finalize exhibition hall plan

Plans to expand the Taipei World Trade Center's exhibition hall 2 will be finalized by the middle of next month, a city government official said yesterday, after demand for trade shows over the next five to 10 years has been evaluated.

"The expansion project is still worth implementing if a business model can be developed to sustain future operations of the yet-to-be-expanded exhibition hall 2," said Lee Sush-der (李述德), director of the city government's Bureau of Finance.

The city government plans to expand the hall's capacity from 331 booths to 800 booths in the next 18 months at a cost of between NT$500 million and NT$1 billion.

The hall would also house a multi-functional conventional center for trade shows, sports events and parking.

"That will help bring in more international buyers and business opportunities to the city," Lee said.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has instructed government agencies to evaluate the project by considering the influence of nearby exhibition halls. These include the Taipei Sports Dome (巨蛋體育場), a 800-booth hall that is scheduled to be built on the site of the old Sungshan Tobacco Factory (松山菸廠) by 2005.

Lee said the city government will soon call meetings to exchange views with local trade show organizers including the China External Trade Development Council (CETRA) and the Taipei Computer Association (TCA).

But a CETRA official said that the expansion project could meet only short-term demand as the hall will be fully replaced by the trade center's hall 1 and the planned Nankang-based exhibition center, which is slated to be completed by 2006.

"In the long run, large-scale international trade shows will be held in Nankang's exhibition center, which has a capacity of 3,000 booths," CETRA secretary-general Chao Yung-chuan (趙永全) told the Taipei Times yesterday.

Chao said that medium and small trade shows, however, would be held in hall 1, which has a flexible capacity of between 300 booths and 2,000 booths depending on how the hall's four blocks are utilized.

By the end of August, the capacity of hall 1 will be increased from 1,300 booths on the first floor to 2,000 booths.

Because annual rent is as much as NT$70 million, CETRA has extended its contract with the city government to lease hall 2 for only one more year after its five-year contract ended last June.

Before deciding the project's fate, Chao urged the city government to thoroughly evaluate its feasibility to avoid creating too much capacity.

The TCA, however, yesterday expressed its support for the city government's expansion project.

"The emerging exhibition and conference industry is promising, giving Taiwan a greater selection of venues to offer in the future," said TCA vice chairman Huang Yun-pei (黃鋆鋇).

Huang, however, said that businesses are reluctant to showcase their products in hall 2 because it was a long way from hall 1.

Also, buyers are accustomed to visiting only one hall and, therefore, few would patronize hall 2 unless the trade show has themes as popular as video games, Huang said.

But the expanded hall 2 may be able to attract international buyers and allow local businesses to expand into export markets, he said.
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