IPIM to set up service counters at two ports to facilitate investors

Irene Lau

The Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) is to set up a service center at the Hong Kong International Airport and at the port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to facilitate investors entering the SAR within this year.

Acting president of the bureau, Irene Lau, announced the information yesterday at a talk during the British Business Association of Macau, where she was the guest speaker.

“This service counter will facilitate investors coming in.  […] We can arrange some logistics [such as] when they come in at the port and the airport, they may need some help or data on who to contact and how to work [on investments in the SAR],” Lau told the press on the sidelines of the event.

Although the official did not give further details on when it would operate, Lau said that they are still in need of time to arrange the facility as it would be outside the city’s jurisdictions, yet pledged that it would be within this year.

Lau reiterated the city’s commitment to being a platform for lusophone countries to collaborate with businesses in the Greater Bay Area.

According to Lau, the increase in the number of convention spaces in the next two years will indicate that Macau is a destination for mega events.

“We have 190,000 square meters of exhibition area, which is good for Macau and there will be complex [rooms] with exhibition halls coming in two years so I would say for the time being, […] we would say Macau is good for MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] conventions of different sizes,” said the bureau’s head.

“We can [accommodate] up to about 25,000 in one event, which really indicates that Macau is a destination for mega events,” Lau added.

Questioned about how the region is dealing with the lack of MICE specialists, the official stressed that IPIM is continuously holding training courses, which also invite attendees from the Greater Bay Area cities.

“We definitely have training courses every year and we are open. […] If we need public relations companies to work with us, we have training courses for them too. We always facilitate and help to organize courses to train [those] in Macau,” the official explained.

According to Lau, the city currently has some 200 graduates of the Exhibition Management Degree, a program that trains exhibition industry professionals.

Commenting on how the bureau would contribute traffic to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Lau implied that it would still take some more time for the MICE industry to use the bridge to enter the region.

“I will say that at a later time, the bridge will be more used for different travelers. MICE will be one of them; […] It takes time and goes step by step,” Lau said.

“We have worked with different government officials and departments and we want to see if they can help us. We have always talked with the industry to see what they need […] and sometimes we have to know that everything has to go step by step, […] it takes time,” she added.

According to the latest data from the Statistics and Census Service, participants in the region’ exhibitions and conventions stood at nearly 217,000 by the third quarter of 2018.