Messe Frankfurt HK chief executive Stephen Buurma: Asia is the company's fastest growth region

Germany's largest trade fair organiser, Messe Frankfurt, will expand staff by 25 per cent in Hong Kong this year to cater for the rapid growth in business in China. The company has also set up a holding company, Messe Frankfurt Asia, in Hong Kong to oversee the operations of its five Asian centres.

Messe Frankfurt's Hong Kong office currently manages the operations, sales, marketing and finance of all events in the greater China region, explained Stephen Buurma, Messe Frankfurt's managing director in Hong Kong.

"Our trade fair business in China is growing rapidly," said Mr Buurma. "We are planning four new fairs in 2004, bringing the total number of events to 17. This has substantially increased the workload of our Hong Kong staff."

Mr Buurma said the holding company, which oversees operations in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, Seoul and Tokyo, had been set up in Hong Kong to give the company a more Asian identity. "This is, after all, the region where our fastest growth is happening," he explained.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Messe Frankfurt, Michael von Zitzewitz, said that the new regulations of Cepa (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland) allowed the company to hold fairs in China without having to use a Chinese partner.

"Asia, especially China, is and remains the focus of the foreign strategy of Messe Frankfurt. The new holding company allows us to respond to the dynamism of the Asian market in a better way and to react more swiftly to the changes. The strong Hong Kong-based company is a jewel in this context," said Mr von Zitzewitz.

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