Mr. Edward Roberts, President of CEMATEX met a journalist  from China Textile News last week and the follows excerpted from his talk:

Mr Edward Roberts, President of CEMATEX

Q: Why did you choose China to host ITMA ASIA? What is the main reason you adopt the way of combining ITMA ASIA with CITME? What are the competitive advantages of China compared to Singapore as the location of ITMA ASIA?

A: China’s textile industry has enjoyed a period of rapid growth and now has one third of the entire world textile production capacity.  The country has become one of the largest buyers of textile machinery, and this is a key reason why we have decided to move ITMA Asia from Singapore to China. 

We hold our ITMA events for the benefit of the exhibitors (our members) and their customers (our visitors).  The consensus of opinion for quite some time has been that we should move the show to China for the foreseeable future, and that this event should be held more frequently than once every four years.

The recent rapid growth in the Asian textile industry as a whole has led to an increase in the number of shows in the region, however we believe that these have failed to meet the demands of the textile industry’s long term development.

The ITMA ASIA and CITME shows are different because both are owned by textile machinery associations who understand the needs of the market and who have these needs in mind when planning the events.

We did not want simply to introduce another show into China, and therefore it made very good sense to work with the partners of the existing CITME show to enable us to combine both the ITMA Asia and CITME shows into one large international event. Our partners share the same objectives of offering high quality, relevant and cost effective events to the Chinese and Asian markets, and because of these common goals it was a very logical step to set up a partnership for this combined show.

The advantage of holding the event in China is that we shall be in the heart of the world’s fastest growing textile economy, which will be extremely advantageous for our exhibitors.  Shanghai is also a very cosmopolitan city with excellent transport links not only to other parts of China but also to the whole of Asia, and we therefore anticipate that the show will attract visitors from all over the region.  The infrastructure of both the city and the venue itself is very advanced and Shanghai has all the necessary requirements to be able to host a major international event.

Q: What are the positive aspects of partnership between CITME and ITMA ASIA and to the European textile machinery manufactures community.

A: The combined show will have the best qualities of both shows.  ITMA Asia + CITME 2008 will be organised to the same high standard as an ITMA event, with the organiser of the past two ITMA Asia events in Singapore (Meeting Planners International) taking an active role as co-organiser in its day to day management and international promotion, and bringing a wealth of experience to the show. 

At the same time, our main organiser, Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Company, will bring its vast local knowledge and expertise to the event. 

This combined show puts the European textile machinery manufacturers on the doorstep of their largest market.  We shall be offering highly competitive packages in order to ensure that even the smallest machinery and accessories manufacturers will be able to participate in the event. 

Q: Compared to the previous editions of CITME and ITMA ASIA, what kind of change will be brought to the new combined exhibition

A: The biggest change is that the show will be organised by two companies — Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition Company and Meeting Planners International, bringing all the advantages of both parties.

Whilst maintaining the high quality of our previous ITMA and ITMA Asia shows, we do plan to modify some of the regulations to make it easier for our exhibitors to participate.  We shall also be introducing some innovations to the show which will be announced in due course, and plan to offer even more assistance to our visitors and exhibitors with their travel planning.  We believe that the new timing of the show for the first event in 2008 (July) will be popular with our European exhibitors because the show ends just as the traditional annual Summer vacation starts.  Because of this, and the fact that the Olympics begin in Beijing just 4 days after the show dismantling period ends, we believe that international exhibitors and visitors will take advantage of the timing to bring their families and take a holiday in China.  

We are planning to launch the show in October this year during the CITME show in Beijing, and we shall be announcing more details at that time.