The hosting of ITU Telecom World 2006, the biggest exposition of its kind since its inception in 1971, will enhance Hong Kong's position as a global telecommunications platform, allowing the industry to showcase their state-of-the-art products and once again demonstrate Hong Kong's capacity to organize large-scale international events, says Joseph Wong, secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

Championed as the Olympics of the telecommunications industry, this is the first time the exposition has been held outside Geneva and in Asia. To support Hong Kong's bid, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao wrote to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

"For this year's event, ITU has invited Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, to be the officiating guest. It is a tradition of ITU to invite a state leader of the host city to officiate at the exposition," Wong said.

But he added that this year's exposition is not like ordinary large-scale commercial exhibitions.

"The high valued-added telecommunications industry is the major economic growth engine in the 21st century, that every country or economy attaches great importance to. And as telecommunications involves complicated policies and huge investment, we have delegates from over 100 countries and regions ranging from the United States and Europe, to developing countries in Africa attending the glittering event.

"With telecommunications ministers and officials from all around the world gathering in Hong Kong, we will be able to conduct bilateral or multilateral talks and exchange our experiences with other countries. For example, we can enter into closer co-operation on practical issues such as combating spam mail and the development of e-government services.

"We have been in close contact with the mainland's Ministry of Information Industry. I know that the mainland is keen to develop its own systems such as 3G and CDMA systems under the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10). So I think this is a great time for Hong Kong to explore room for co-operation and business opportunities," he said.

Highlights

Since the 2006 exposition is being held in Hong Kong on the Chinese soil for the first time, it has attracted more than 100 Chinese enterprises as opposed to less than 10 enterprises for the 2003 exposition. They include: China Telecom, China Netcom, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Satcom.

On the local front, 71 Hong Kong exhibitors, including both big names and small and medium enterprises, will take part on top of some 630 multinational corporations.

Also, the CEOs of some top companies including Cisco, Motorola, Intel and Hewlett-Packard will attend the Forum, which carries the theme of "Living the Digital World," to be held during the exhibition period.

"As a new feat, we will arrange a trip to Shenzhen to enable foreign exhibitors to personally see potentially the biggest and fastest-growing telecommunications market in the world.

Comparing ITU Telecom World 2006 with the WTO Sixth Ministerial Conference that was also held in Hong Kong last December, he believes they are different in nature, because the ITU exposition is an industry event, while the WTO conference was a ministerial meeting.

He says: "There will also be ministers coming for the ITU event, which is expected to yield economic benefits of up to US$900 million, and they both carry big significance and are very important to Hong Kong."

The ITU Telecom World 2006 will be held in the new Asia World Expo Centre, which boasts an area of 66,000 square metres, adjacent to the Hong Kong International Airport, from December 4 to 8.

Chinese exhibitors, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, occupy 24 per cent of the total space but Hong Kong and Macao will have their own pavilions.

One of this year's highlights will be the China Day on December 5, which features an opening ceremony, grand lunch for VIPs, business exchanges plus an official reception in the evening.

Overall, the exposition is expected to attract 42,000 - 57,000 participants, including 35,000 - 50,000 trade visitors from 160 countries and regions and 1,500 media representatives from 45 countries and regions.

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