APIC ’07: China delegates fail to make Asia meet

18 May 2007 14:07  [Source: ICIS news]

TAIPEI (ICIS news)--Delegates from China were missing from Asia’s largest petrochemical meeting as their visa applications were not approved in time for the gathering, officials from the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan said on Friday.

A Chinese national speaker from SRI Consulting failed to get his visa to present his paper at the 28th Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC), one official said.

A delegate said his meetings with Chinese participants were cancelled at the last minute.

“The biggest market is China but we don’t see any delegates from the country,” an Israeli industry player said.

China is not a member of APIC while Taiwan is a member of the industry group as country. But China views self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has threatened to use force to reclaim it.

“It was only recently that they became so active in the industry. They have a delegation due to come to our formal meetings but they are not a member yet,” a Taiwanese producer, who is also in the organising committee, said.

He added that next year’s APIC would be held in Singapore, which would not pose a problem for the Chinese nationals.

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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