We are here in Hong Kong at UBM's Jewellery and Gem Fair,
which is since 26 years, every year in June.
This is the smaller sister of the world's largest Hong Kong
Jewellery and Gem Fair, which is every year in September.
This year it's going to be the 31st event.
UBM is a worldwide-operating B2B media company.
Altogether, we have meanwhile more than 20 trade shows.
And of course, in Hong Kong, we have
a host of our flagship shows.
Where Hong Kong is taking a lot of advantage
is, of course, being at the doorsteps of the mainland
of China helps a lot to attract more and more buyers
coming every year here to our fairs in Hong Kong.
But also, Hong Kong is gifted to be in the middle of East Asia,
so it's likewise convenient for buyers from, say, Japan
or Korea, or from Malaysia, or even Australia and Singapore
to come all the way here to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is an open port, which is
an ideal backdrop for a jewelry show, for jewelry trade.
You can get in and out here very easily, carrying your trade.
And of course, Hong Kong, for the same reason,
has developed into Asia's largest trading hub
port for fine jewelry, for pearls,
and for diamonds in the past years.
Doing business here, setting up the trade, it's extremely easy.
It's very seamless.
Moreover, being at the doorsteps of China,
Hong Kong still serves as a very strong springboard
for foreign companies who want to enter the Chinese market,
because they find here what they're looking for, which
is, again, reliable business partners, transparency, clear
laws, skilled people.
You find people with all necessary language skills.
You find a large community of English-language and
Chinese-language business executives.
So everything you really need, all the tools you need,
and all the implements you need to conduct
a successful business with China and with Asia, you
can find here.
Hong Kong is hosting three large fine jewelry shows every year.
This year, in June.
Then, as I said, the world's largest,
which is our show in September.
The third addition is in March, hosted by the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council, which is [INAUDIBLE]
government organization.
So Hong Kong is the only place in the world
that you have three of the largest jewelry
shows in a year.
September is by all means the strongest.
It's a worldwide show with more than 3,600 exhibitors.
We have a fine jewelry section as well as
a very strong material section.
This is a show where we have more than 400 diamond
companies offering their products.
So [INAUDIBLE] paradise for buyers.
And this is really the event which
the whole industry, the whole trade,
is waiting for throughout the year.
What we could observe in the past years
is that the buying habit is more and more
tuning towards the trade show calendar.
And the fact that the show is always
in the first half of September of the year
means that the buyers plan their entire sourcing and travel
calendar for the year, focused on this show.
At the same time, of course, we need
to see that we get into China.
We have shows in China, as well.
In fact, which is another advantage for having jewelry
trade here in Hong Kong is that just across the border,
the first city you will find is Shenzhen.
Shenzhen is the capital of the Chinese jewelry trade.
Most of the factories, many of which
are Hong Kong investments, are just 30,
40 miles away from here, north in direction.
For the same reason, we have a Shenzen jewelry fair
every year at the beginning of the year.
We have another one in Shanghai in fall of every year.
And we have, since three years, a high-end B2C fine jewelry
event, which is this year in Hangzhou.
These three events in mainland China
are complementary to the leading events here in Hong Kong,
and it corresponds very nicely with each other.
In terms of the segments, we have done, in the past years,
segmentation of products in the fine jewelry
and in the materials sector.
So we are standing here in front of our fine design and fine gem
pavilions, which means we invited higher-end providers
to present their products in a distinct area,
making sure that the buyers which
are looking for those products can easier find them.
Every large trade show, like this one
or the one we have in September, is so large
that it means an organizer has to do its utmost to help buyers
to use their time as efficient as possible
and to find strictly what they are really looking for.
In terms of the origin of the exhibitors,
we have about half-half local exhibitors
from Hong Kong, the other half from around the world.
We have more than a dozen national pavilions
at our shows in June and in September.
So it's highly, highly international shows
on the exhibitor side.
Hong Kong is a strong industry, has a strong jewelry trade,
and therefore, the number of exhibitors is relatively high.
As far as buyers are concerned, we have at this show,
I believe, close to 40,000 buyers.
And at our September show, we welcome
every year more than 60,000 buyers,
again with a very high proportion
of international buyers.
Particularly the number of buyers from China
is growing two digits every year.
There's a couple of things you can observe
by looking at the China market.
First of all, against the backdrop of the increasing
wealth, you can see that the demand for fine jewelry
as well as for diamonds and gemstones
is significantly increasing every year.
You can also see that the taste of Chinese consumers
is changing more towards, say, Western designs.
Not just Asian, but as well Western-designed fine jewelry.
You can also see that the demand for diamonds
is ever increasing.
In fact, there's a lot of individuals in China
who buy diamonds mainly for investment purpose.
And of course, traditionally in every Asian country,
likewise in China, when it comes to fine jewelry,
there is still a favor for gold, for gold jewelry.
And this is against the backdrop, again,
of an ever-increasing demand of gold in China.
China is the largest buyer of gold,
and keeps on driving the gold demand, the worldwide gold
demand.
In fact, the world production of gold
is about to be outpaced by the demand of gold
just from two countries, which are China and India.
If you talk to exhibitors here, you
will find that it is very obvious
that the Chinese consumers get more and more sophisticated
and more and more knowledgeable when
it comes to the distinctness of diamonds and of gemstones.
They have more knowledge than they had five or ten years ago,
which means, as well, they do really
appreciate a high-quality product and a very nice diamond
or very nice gemstone.