THE HONG KONG contingent returned to BaselWorld with a flourish this year, celebrating the triumph of having a new venue dedicated to overseas exhibitors as the jewellery and watch fair's organisers made amends for last year, when it caused the Hong Kong contingent to pull out by imposing impromptu Sars control measures.
Country pavilions which were moved to Zurich in the 2003 BaselWorld due to space constraints were this year located in the new Hall 6 - Hall of Universe.
Costing 40 million Swiss francs (HK$244 million) to build, the 28,000 square metre venue has become a permanent fixture reserved only for BaselWorld's country pavilions after the organisers secured a six-year commitment from the exhibitors.
This year the new hall accommodated 800 exhibitors from 27 countries, including Hong Kong.
'Every cloud has a silver lining,' said Rene Kamm, former show director for BaselWorld.
'[Last year's incident] gave us the motivation to emerge stronger than ever. The opening of Hall 6 for country pavilion exhibitors is directly linked to what happened last year and shows that we have finally mastered the crisis.'