Shanghai's exhibition industry is booming despite a massive drop in the number of government-sponsored trade fairs, a local foreign trade authority said recently.
In the first 11 months of the year, the city has hosted 245 international exhibitions with a total exhibition space of 4.16 million square meters, according to data from the Shanghai Foreign Economic Relation & Trade Commission (SMERT).
Although there was a decline in the number of exhibitions this year -- there were 276 last year -- the average exhibition space jumped 25 percent. Large exhibitions, or those with an exhibition space over 10,000 square meters, accounted for 35 percent of the total in China and put Shanghai at the top of the nation.
Wang Jinzhen, vice president of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, praised Shanghai for its leading position in the exhibition industry, saying it set up a good example nationwide.
The Government has had to withdraw from participating in exhibitions, Wang said, because China, with its entry into the World Trade Organization, promised to step up the introduction of a market-oriented economy.
In Shanghai, the rate of government sponsored international fairs has dropped to 2 percent, the lowest on China's mainland.
Only one exhibition in Shanghai has been government subsidized this year, according to Wu Genbao, dean of SFERT's trade promotion division.