Activities such as fairs and exhibitions are thriving in Shanghai as part of the efforts to create a profitable and pollution-free sector as a new spur to economic growth in this China's leading industrial and commercial center.

Encouraged by the nation's reform and opening-up policy introduced in 1979, showcase events are seeing unprecedented development in Shanghai. The number of such activities held locally has been growing annually by 20 percent since 1990, and exceeded 150 in 1999, an average of two a week.

These events have become ever more popular in Shanghai as a way of obtaining information, promoting market presence, and increasing economic exchanges and cooperation.

The city has hosted a number of international and commercial exhibitions involving automobiles, electronics, computers, telecommunications, household appliances, medicine, garments, and foodstuffs.

Shanghai expects that these events can serve as a catalyst for boosting the development of the overall local economy in the areas of communications, telecommunications, tourism, hotels, catering, and entertainment and advertising.

There are now five large exhibition centers available in Shanghai offering a total of more than 100,000 sq m of floor space for displays, barely meeting the demand of over a hundred fairs and exhibitions held in the city annually. The number of employees in the city involved in the exposition business is now over 3,000.

Some renowned overseas exhibition companies are keen to invest in Shanghai, which is proving to be a hot spot due to its favorable location, good foundation in education and science and technology, and economic influence in China.

A Sino-German-funded exposition center is now being built in the Pudong New Areas at a cost of nearly 100 million US dollar, jointly invested in by three well-known German exhibition companies based in Hanover, Dusseldorf, and Munich.

Upon completion, the center, designed by US architects, will eventually reach an impressive 200,000 square meters, greatly expanding the exhibition area in Shanghai.

Experts from Germany say that this new exposition center marks the first joint investment made by all three major German exhibition companies in the international market.

A growing number of Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen, and Ningbo, are also resorting to exhibitions to attract businesses and tourists.

Though the Internet is becoming ever more popular as a way of doing business, many take the view that these fairs and similar activities are able to get twice the results with half the effort through face-to-face dealings, and this means growing business opportunities. (Xinhua)