The Royal Paragon Hall is composed of a main hall which can be divided into two halls with respective sizes of 3,000 and 2,500sq.m, with five good-sized meeting spaces to accommodate seminars and conferences, say the organizers. The multipurpose venue will host events including exhibitions, trade fairs, high end consumer fairs, product launches, live performances, concerts and fashion shows.
"It had been a tough decision on our end to decide on the ultimate venue for PALA Thailand, for the simple reason that Bangkok has a good selection of world-class exhibition centres! Accessibility and functionality of the venue facilities are important criteria for our exhibitors and visitors, local and foreign," says Rosalind Ng, managing director (Asia) of IIR Exhibitions.
PALA's regular exhibitors are upbeat about Thailand being the chosen venue for 2006 event, say IIR, adding that PALA 2006 will provide attendees with valuable inroads to the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and the Yunnan Province of China, and is slated to be one of the fastest growing subregions of the world. Reinforcing this optimism, the Thai government has recently announced that it will invest 1.7 trillion baht (US$ 42.5 billion) in public infrastructure projects over the next four years. The planned public infrastructure development projects will include 500 billion baht for developing the Skytrain and subway for a combined distance of 300 km; 100 billion baht for public health care projects and education projects. In addition, the construction sector in Thailand will grow to US$5.2 billion in 2005 then to US$5.4 billion in 2006.The sector is expected to experience moderate growth for the next two years and an acceleration of growth in 2007 when spending feeds through into this sector from the government's new investment program.
(Lee Baldock)
