SHANGHAI - International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) will hold RECon Asia 2011 at Intex Shanghai on November 2 as the largest gathering of deal makers in the world's fastest growing retail market.

The event, the sixth annual regional edition of the council's convention and exhibition, will bring the world's top executives in retail, retail real estate development, leasing, management and lending as well as academic experts and government officials, said Solomon Xu, China representative of ICSC.

"They will discuss a wide spectrum of industry issues from the challenges of growing retail businesses in new markets to hedging currency risk," Xu said.

The three-day event, hosted for the second time in China, signaled the global retail real estate community's growing interest in the country. Despite its challenges, China remains for global players the one market that must be tamed and the one market that cannot be overlooked by any retail real estate player with global aspirations, he said.

"For some investors, fence-sitting has come at a cost. Opportunities in China's first-tier cities are already narrowing as these markets begin to mature," said ICSC Asia Pacific Director Tan Guan Heng.

"Thus, if you talk about Chinese these days, the focus tends to be on second- and third-tier cities," Tan said.

He said the question for this year's convention is "Have those second-and third-tier cities learned from earlier mistakes?"

Three or four years ago, many foreign players charged into them - only to abandoned their plans in many cases because the markets weren't ready, Tan said, adding that one big problem was the lack of skilled labor.

"But maybe that's been solved one way or the other, we'll get the answer to that and a lot of other questions at RECon Asia," he said.

China's economy continues at a gallop, resulting in a sharper increase of Chinese consumption. The total retail sales of consumer goods in the first half of 2011 amounted to 8.58 trillion yuan ($1.33 trillion), up 16.8 per cent over the same period in 2010.

RECon Asia 2011 will be mounting a comprehensive programme. While the conference features speakers and panels addressing key industry issues, the exhibition will showcase new and upcoming retail real estate projects and the latest products and services, said Tan.