MICE Industry To Benefit From Malaysia's ASEAN Chairmanship

By Zairina Zainudin KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) industry is set to be the biggest benefactor, reaping the spillover effects from the country's chairmanship of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year. UBM Asia Ltd president/chief executive officer, Jime Essink, said at the helm of a political and economic organisation of ten South-East Asian countries, Malaysia would be in the limelight for big and important events. He said trade exhibitions were one of the prominent platforms for industries to market their products and services, and several domestic- and regional-level exhibitions were set to take place in Malaysia this year. "Malaysia is set to become the hub in ASEAN for events. The country should take advantage of that," he told Bernama after the opening ceremony of Malaysia International Furniture Fair (MIFF) 2015 here Tuesday. The five-day event, starting Tuesday at the Putra World Trade Centre and Matrade Exhibition and Convention Centre, is the world's leading export-oriented furniture trade show. Earlier, in his welcoming remark, Essink said there were plenty of room for trade event industry to grow in the region where the market size was now US$600 million (RM2.18 billion) with Malaysia having a 17 per cent share of US$103 million (RM373.51 million). He said the launch of ASEAN Economic Community this year would be another key driver for the show industry in the region. "The pace of trade exhibitions is anticipated to pick up by 10 per cent annually for the next three to five years and overtake the estimated eight per cent growth in Asia," he said. According to Essink, South-East Asia's combined market of 620 million people and gross domestic product of US$2.4 trillion (RM8.7 trillion), would drive tremendous future growth for exhibitions, conferences, and industry publications. He said more exhibition space would be ready in Kuala Lumpur by 2017, thus opening up exciting opportunities to expand and bring more events here. The MIFF is organised by UBM Malaysia, a unit under UBM Asia. It is the leading exhibition organiser and the biggest commercial organiser in the region, particularly in mainland China, India and Malaysia. Among big events to be hosted by UBM Asia in Malaysia this year include Rail Business Asia, Ecobuild Southeast Asia, ASEAN REI Summit, Greenbuild Asia and Ecolight Asia. -- BERNAMA