Regional focus
Scoring with China’s Greater Bay
Martin Donovan is on the exhibition ball explaining latest developments
in Zhuhai, The Pearl River Delta, Hainan and beyond…
ne wish-list item that
Chinese President Xi
Jinping holds dear also
happens to be one that
he may readily admit to having less
control over; at least when compared
to the tight grip he maintains on the
reins of state power. As a youngster,
the President was a keen footballer
and like so many fans still nurtures a
hope that China’s national team can
emulate the success of its Olympic
gymnasts and swimmers.
For now, however, the nearest
China may hope of fulfilling the
dream of hosting the FIFA World Cup
comes in the form of an exhibition
and conference operated by a
London-headquartered organiser.
Soccerex held its inaugural China
event at the Zhuhai International
Conference and Exhibition Centre
where 1,500-plus delegates and 75
exhibitors, including representatives
from Europe’s top leagues, gathered
last April to help their hosts
understand more about building
the game-cum-industry in China,
and probably avoid mentioning the
national team’s 6-0 defeat to Wales
earlier in the city of Nanning the
previous month.
Tony Martin, Soccerex Chairman,
was in cup-winning mode at the close
of his company’s first event in China,
saying how attendance exceeded
expectations and more. Then came
the crucial part – at least as far as the
exhibition industry is concerned: he
praised Da Heng Qin and the Huafa
Group, the event’s main partners for
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Issue 1 2019
the event in Zhuhai, a maritime city in
the south of Guangdong province and
facing the former Portuguese colony
of Macau, which like neighbouring
Hong Kong across the Pearl River
Delta, is a Special Administrative
Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic
of China.
Huafa Group is the holding
company behind the classy Zhuhai
International Conference and
Exhibition Centre, which opened
in 2014, and will see a Phase II in
the form of more space and a retail
mall in the coming months. ZHICEC,
as organisers in the region dub the
complex that will be the centrepiece
of Shizimen Central Business District,
is also graced with a modern theatre
and an Italian-style opera theatre
called the Mozart Hall.
To add to the elegant credentials,
there is The St Regis in the upper
levels of the 72-floor Zhuhai Tower,
which commands views and forms
a striking centrepiece for the
conference and exhibition complex,
which also includes the Sheraton. The
whole complex is under the control of
Huafa Group.
Island of Hengqin
Just across a tributary of the Pearl River,
in clear sight of ZHICEC is the island
of Hengqin, under the stewardship of
the other Soccerex China partner, Da
Heng Qin. Hengqin spreads out towards
the Lotus Bridge boundary crossing to
Macau’s Cotai, the home of Sands China
and a host of other casino and resort
operators.
Like the rest of China, other than
Macau, casinos are outlawed on Hengqin
and instead the island is earmarked for
leisure tourism with family-friendly
mega resorts such as Chimelong.
Hengqin also serves as the base for
a large extension of Macau University
with other sites taken up by biotech and
finance companies, often backed with
Hong Kong investment. The island is
also seen as serving the role of Macau’s
“backyard” with employment prospects
beyond the regular opportunities for
well-paid croupier work.
With Zhuhai and Macau also served
by the new seabridge and tunnel link
stretching 55km across the Pearl Delta to
Hong Kong, which opened last October,
the mood among exhibition industry
leaders is a palpable, “Well, what are we
waiting for?”
The answer can be given by
mentioning a specific date that falls
almost a fortnight after Chinese New
Year: 21 February, 2019. That is when
a blueprint approved by the central
government in Beijing is expected to
reveal an IT-led Greater Bay Area in
which the bridge, known as the HZMB,
will geographically symbolise a new
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk