A HCM City Department of Culture and Sports meeting on January 3 reviews the exhibition organising industry and plans to develop it during the next decade. VNS Photo Văn Châu

HCM CITY – The exhibition organising industry has played a crucial role in job creation in HCM City and economic growth, experts have said.
Speaking at a workshop organised late last week by the city Department of Culture and Sports to review the industry’s performance and make plans for the next decade, Trà Đức Khang, deputy director of the HCM City Information and Exhibition Centre, pointed out that exhibitions also helped promote arts, start-up companies’ products and new technologies.
The number of international exhibitions was increasing, and their contents were improving, he said. The exhibitions were becoming increasingly diverse and sophisticated, with technologies like 3D, virtual reality and augmented reality being used, he added.
Nguyễn Văn Trình, deputy head of the Institute for Development Studies, said the city’s objective was to make exhibition an important service industry to abet economic growth.
Hoàng Thạch Vân, deputy chairman of the city Photography Association, said with the country’s global integration new types of arts such as nude paintings and tattooing were becoming popular, but exhibitions on them were difficult to organize because of cultural considerations.
Trình said the exhibition organising industry was expected to become modern and professional but this would require support policies to attract investment in exhibition infrastructure.
"The industry needs to build a database of images of the country and its culture and people for political, diplomatic and tourism purposes and promote the use of modern technologies to create attractive photographic and fine arts works," he added. VNS