China's impending entry into WTO and the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing have greatly raised people's expectations for the country and its capital city. They hope more international big occasions will take place here to improve Beijing's international standing.

Before the opening of the exciting Olympic Games, Beijing will build a group of exhibition facilities, putting its total exhibition space at 400,000 square meters, according to Yao Wang, director of the Beijing Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Three projects are currently under construction and will be completed within three years. Seven more are being planned for the downtown area and suburbs.

A 220,000-square-meter hall will be built as a new facilities of the China International Exhibition Center in a few years in the Olympic Park to be located in north Beijing, according to Yao.

Beijing will become a new and international-standard exhibition center, businessmen say. More large exhibition facilities will be built in Beijing in the wake of its winning the host bid for the Games, and this will bring numerous business opportunities to the city.

Beijing now has 12 convention and exhibition buildings, with a combined exhibition area of 176,000 square meters, statistics show. In the past five years, 1,250 exhibitions, including more than 800 international exhibitions, were held in the city, accounting for half of the nation's total.

It has been a consensus among the business circles that the exhibition industry is a new economic growth point in China as well as in the world, and Beijing has great potential to nab a large share of the market.

According to the Beijing Association of International Exhibition Industry, the exhibition sector offers 17,600 jobs and yields a per capita GDP of US$ 31,000 a year, compared with the city's average per capita GDP of US$ 2,700 last year.

Beijing's exhibition service will face stiff international competition in the future, said Chan Wing Kee, of Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (Management) Ltd.

The Hong Kong company will join hands with Beijing in developing convention and exhibition business, while providing Beijing with services in planning, design, management and personnel exchange and training, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/25/2001)