Textile Value Chain Talked with Mr. Ernesto Maurer, President of Cematex, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers, and organizers of ITMA Exhibitions.
ITMA has a show lineup in China and now also is venturing to Singapore, can you speak about it?
We did a show successfully in Singapore in 2001, It had been a very successful show. The world has changed tremendously, and now we want to give space to countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India to make sure they have access to the market. That’s why we are going to Singapore.
The main reason we wanted to do the show is we want to give the International market to Asian markets and vice versa. I believe in being present in the market, that’s why we are going to Singapore, because it is a good location, for business and financing. And it is a very modern venue.
The venue size is approx., 70000 sq. m., regarding the exhibitors, we didn’t make any projections yet.
Are there any plans for ITMA to come to India?
We don’t believe in competition. India already has India ITME which is also a four-year machinery show. If we do ITMA in India, there is a possibility that both shows will fail.
We have here four-year show in Milan, we are doing ITMA Asia every two years in Shanghai and now in Singapore.
For this edition of ITMA Europe, you launched ITMA Connect, what is it?
It is the need of the world to go digital. That’s why we launched ITMA Connect, as a B2B portal for businesses and also to attract more visitors and exhibitors. We started it one month before and it will also be available after the ITMA show. It’s a start, we have to see how things go, we have to start somewhere.
Other than your Singapore show, are there any plans for new shows in the coming years?
I think we already have enough shows, we have ITMA Asia in Shanghai in November 2023, we are doing ITMA Europe again in Germany in 4 years, in 2024 again in Shanghai, 25 in Singapore, and 27 in Germany. This means we have international shows every year.
We have ITMA Europe in Germany in 2027, it’s very simple when selecting the venues. With the size requirement, you don’t have that many options, Milan is a good venue, and Germany is even larger. It is very important to have modern amenities, logistics, etc. Now I am looking forward to Germany. So, it’s always a decision that we take, we have a long list of requirements and then we conclude. It has so many other factors, there are accessibility, logistics, storage for containers, etc.
A lot of visitors face issues with Visa, how are you as an organizer addressing the issue?
For ITMA Milan, we had very close contact with the Italian government, and they have put special efforts into the visa-approving procedure for the visitors. Regarding the visitors, I can only suggest to everybody to start the process in advance. I think it is very important to apply for an invitation through our website. After that, this is a political decision of the state, we can only encourage them on our behalf.
With ITMA Europe, the EU has the same state of guidelines for every country which is part of the EU, so I think the visa process will be the same as Italy in Germany.
For Singapore, it has a very open policy for visas, and I believe it will be easy for visitors.
