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Making its debut in 1938 and
organized by the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong
(CMA), the Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo (HKBPE) is a
renowned exhibition aiming to promote Hong Kong's products, and
to foster the development of our industry and external trade.
As a retailing exhibition held outdoor traditionally, the HKBPE
not only presents a comprehensive picture on Hong Kong's
manufacturing industry as a whole, but also gradually
encompasses industrial products from Mainland China and overseas
countries, so as to reflect the overall situation of
international industrial activities, latest products,
technologies, as well as services.
Following the Expo's well-established tradition, the CMA would
always line up a wide variety of spectacular programmes and
fabulous performances during the exhibition period, making HKBPE
a wonderful place for the citizens to enjoy a combination of
both shopping and entertainment. Among the others, the Miss
Exhibition Pageant, with a brilliant history of near 60 years,
has been commended as a precedent for Hong Kong's beauty
contests. The HKBPE is now widely recognized as one of the most
important annual events in Hong Kong, and it has been
deeply-rooted in the hearts of the local community.
Looking back, there was no plain sailing for the HKBPE. The
HKBPE was inaugurated in 1930's. At that time, Hong Kong’s
industrial products exports faced great difficulty due to
imposition of heavy tariffs by Mainland. The CMA, therefore,
decided to explore the Southeast Asia market. The CMA
participated in the “1st Chinese Products Exhibition” in
Singapore. Hong Kong's industrial products were increasingly
popular since then. Southeast Asia became a major export market
for Hong Kong’s industrial products. With the success in
exploring foreign markets, it became widely agreed among the
industry that Hong Kong should stage its own exhibition to
enhance the public's understanding about local industrial
products. Together with the YWCA of Hong Kong, an industrial
products exhibition was held from February 4 to 8, 1938 at St
Paul's College in Central, at which 40 industrial enterprises
displayed 200 types of products in a total of 86 booths. This
marked the beginning of the HKBPE era.
From 1939 onwards, the Exhibition was solely sponsored by the
Association and the 2nd Exhibition was held at Wah Nam Middle
School, Kowloon. However, because of the Japanese occupation
during the Second World War, the Exhibition was temporarily
suspended for seven years as of 1941, until it was resumed in
1948.
In 1957, window display was introduced to the Exhibition for the
first time. The 'Consume Hong Kong Products' Campaign advocated
in this Expo received enthusiastic response from the community,
which remains an interesting anecdote on many elderly people's
lips even in today.
The year 1967 marked the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong
Industrial Products Exhibition, which was named "Silver Jubilee
Exhibition of Hong Kong Products'. The Exhibition venue was a
newly reclaimed site in Hung Hom, with an area of more than
600,000 square feet. The Hong Kong Government also began to
participate in the Exhibition.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of a proper venue, the CMA had to
give up staging HKBPE since 1974. There were 31 exhibitions
organized from 1938 to 1974. The number of exhibitors increased
from 40 in the first exhibition to about 2,000 in later ones,
and the count of visitors rocketed from 30,000 to about 2
million.
The 32nd HKBPE was staged again in 1994 to celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the CMA. The 4-day Expo received overwhelming
response and recorded 200,000 visitors. Four years later, the
33rd to 37th HKBPE were successfully held from 1998 to 2002
annually at Tamar Site, Central, and the number of visitors per
expo was increased to more than million visitors. For the
continued success, HKBPE was relocated to Victoria Park in 2003.
The attendance record and the total sales turnover were
rewritten year by year.
The total sales turnover of the 51st HKBPE is over HK$900
million.
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