MIECF 2021 | Environmental forum to be held online

Due to the sudden appearance of four new Covid-19 cases in Macau, this year’s Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition (MIECF), to run from August 5 to 7, will be held online only.
Yesterday morning, the organizing entities, the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA), held a joint press conference to announce the new arrangements and programs for this year’s event.
Under the theme “Towards a Green and Low Carbon New Era”, this year’s MIECF is designed to further integrate online and offline elements, helping enterprises break through geographical boundaries and together explore green business opportunities.
However, as disease control measures step up in the city, the organizing entities announced yesterday evening that all the offline sessions and events in this year’s program will be cancelled. Only online events and sessions will be retained.
The online section of the MIECF 2021 will see the return of the Green Matching sessions, which are an important part of the event. This year’s MIECF will promote green co-operation among enterprises through online business matching, the mobile application Scan2Match, and the “Online Business Matching Service Platform” (https://bm.ipim.gov.mo).
A 14-day online business matching service will be offered before the event, from now to August 7, helping exhibitors and buyers establish business contact and negotiate online to explore business co-operation opportunities.
Originally, one of the offline events was a keynote speech on “The transformation of manufacturing industry under the ‘double carbon’ target” by Dong Mingzhu, chairperson and president of Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai and the UN’s “Messenger of Sustainable Urban Development” at the opening ceremony.
The organizing entities confirmed yesterday evening that this session will not be moved online, meaning that it will be cancelled.
With the original opening date just around the corner, booths were set up at the Venetian Macao’s Cotai Expo. The sudden cancellation of the event will result in the termination of the existing set up.
For the first time, the offline expo was set to include a section showcase electric vehicles. As of yesterday, manufacturers such as Tesla, BMW and MINI had set up part of their booths.
Also missing this year’s event will be a Government Guided Tour and a Government Procurement Matching Session, which were set to be held on the second day of the event. These sessions were originally targeted to allow government departments to be better informed of the latest environmental technologies, products and developments, as well as to enhance co-operation and exchange between the government and industry on environmental protection matters. Moreover, green matching sessions on “electric vehicles” and “eco-friendly tableware” were originally planned to bring in more eco-friendly products to Macau.
As was originally planned, on the first two days of the MIECF 2021, there will be four sessions of the Green Forum covering four topics, in which nearly 30 guests from different municipalities, provinces, and regions are invited as moderators and guest speakers.
They were set to share their views on “Accelerating Commercialisation of Technological Innovation, Mainstreaming Green Manufacturing and Lifestyles”, “The ‘14th Five-Year’ Environmental Plan and the Path to the Future”, “Pan-Pearl River Delta Environmental Protection Industry Conference for Co-operation and Exchange”, and “Clean Energy, Clean Air: an Investment for the Future”, in order to enhance the industry’s understanding of sustainable development and environmental protection in relevant industries.