ExclusiveCoronavirus: China to postpone tropical Davos as outbreak derails slew of high-profile events

March’s Boao Forum for Asia, a gathering of business and political elites, has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak

It is the latest international event in China that has been suspended as the country struggles to contain the epidemic

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Published: 12:59pm, 21 Feb 2020Updated: 11:58pm, 21 Feb 2020

The Boao Forum for Asia, a Davos-style gathering of regional business and political elites on the tropical island of Hainan, is the latest international event in China to be suspended due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The annual conference, which was expected to take place from March 24-27, will be postponed after the virus forced China to delay the National People’s Congress, the annual parliamentary gathering that was set to begin March 5, two sources briefed on the matter told the South China Morning Post.

It is the latest in a long list of events planned for March and April that have been derailed by the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 2,200 people and infected over 76,000 people around the world.

The China Development Forum, a gathering of global business executives organised by the Development Research Center of the State Council, said earlier this month it would postpone its Beijing event, without announcing a new date.

Beijing, which is usually busy with exhibitions and conferences, has imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people upon arrival.

At least 177 exhibitions set for February have been cancelled or rescheduled, including the Shanghai International Industrial Automation and Robot Exhibition, the Prolight and Sound Fair in Guangzhou and the International Equipment Machinery Exhibition in Jinan city, China Trade News reported. Another 262 exhibitions scheduled in March are likely to be postponed or changed, the newspaper added.

“Nearly all the offline activities of our [China] clients have been suspended,” a sales manager from EventBank China, which provides event management software for companies, said over the phone without giving his name. Many customers had now shifted to holding events online through the platform, he added.