Hong Kong Jewellery & Watch Fair has been renamed as the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair to better reflect the wider scope of the fairs, its organizers, CMP Asia, said Tuesday. Both the June and September editions of the fair in 2009 will be using this new name.

“As the most important trade event for the global jewelry trade, the exhibit profile of the fair is very different from 26 years ago when it started with the September edition,” said Celine Lau, director of Jewellery Fairs, CMP Asia. “Materials like diamonds, gemstones, and pearls are of increasing importance alongside fine jewelry, so it is time to change the name of the Fair so that exhibitors and visitors know the profile of the Fair.”

Launched in 1983, the September Fair is now Asia’s largest international jewelry fair and one of the top three in the world, CMP said. The September Fair is one of the few locally developed exhibitions that have grown to full international status. It has expanded from 100 exhibitors from 10 countries and regions, occupying 3,500 sqm of exhibition space in 1983 to 2,630 exhibitors from 44 countries and regions, on 81,000 sqm of exhibition space in 2008.

The fair has outgrown the full capacity of the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre for years with a long waiting list of new country pavilions, hundreds of new exhibitors and the expansion needs of existing exhibitors. When AsiaWorld-Expo, the second exhibition centre in Hong Kong opened in 2006, the fair began to use both venues to accommodate 2,500 exhibitors. The Fair is the only exhibition in Hong Kong that uses both venues.

As a result of the massive scale of the Fair, CMP Asia introduced in August a new arrangement for the September Fair in 2009, which is similar to those of other large-scale global exhibitions. Next year, the HKCEC will showcase exhibitors with finished jewelry, while the AWE will display raw materials, such as loose diamonds, pearls, and gemstones, and machinery. The major advantage of this approach is that it allows visitors to focus immediately on their areas of interest, enhancing efficiency in their visits which will directly benefit the exhibitors, CMP said.

The 2009 September edition of the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair will attract more than 2,800 exhibitors, of which 47 percent will be fine finished jewelry exhibitors and 42 percent will be materials exhibitors. By then, the JGF at AsiaWorld-Expo will also become the largest material sourcing platform in Asia, CMP said.

JCK