Incentive package sees SIEC business levels soar

Due, in part, to strong support from the local authorities, Suzhou's exhibition industry has developed rapidly over the past four years. The city's major exhibition venue - the Suzhou International Expo Center (SIEC) - hosted 137 events in 2008, up 52 percent on the previous year. The figure for the whole city was no more than 20 a year before the center's establishment in 2004.

The SIEC is based in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), a highly successful technical center of excellence that celebrated its 15th anniversary last month.

Speaking of the relationship between the SIP as a whole and the SIEC, Ma Minglong, secretary of the SIP working committee of the Communist Party of China, said: "The SIP's development and its well-established industries have generated a great demand for exhibition and convention events. All related government departments must work together to support exhibition events by helping the organizers reduce cost and providing them with excellent services and facilities."