Singapore cancels trade fair due to SARS

SINGAPORE – Asia’s biggest telecommunications and broadcasting trade fair has been cancelled this year due to the SARS scare, organizers said.

Foreign attendance at CommunicAsia 2003 and BroadcastAsia 2003, scheduled for June 17-20, would have been severely affected and postponing the fair to the second half of the year was ruled out because of a crowded world calendar for similar events.

The organizers, Singapore Exhibition Services (SES), said in a statement they had decided to hold the next fair in June 2004, making it the latest commercial gathering to fall victim to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

"This is the most expensive option open to us but we see this as a long-term business decision. We have to fulfill our responsibility to our exhibitors as well as to preserve the quality and integrity of the shows," SES chief executive Stephen Tan said.

Postponing the shows to the second half of the year was considered but no suitable, alternative window was available since the world calendar for the period is already filled with other events such as BIRTV (Beijing), IBC (Amsterdam), ITU World Telecom (Geneva), CTIA Wireless (Las Vegas), Interbee (Japan) and Comdex (Las Vegas).

The world’s leading telecoms and broadcast companies, hardware manufacturers and allied industries normally take part in the Singapore fair, which is often used to launch new products and services to the Asian market.