PRESS RELEASE - FOR ARCH 2001 - the 12th International Construction Trade Fair

On Tuesday, September 11, the Prague Exhibition Centre (PVA) at Praha - Letňany was a venue of the opening ceremony of the 12th International Construction Trade Fair FOR ARCH 2001. The trade fair, expected to host 1,182 Czech companies plus 16 firms coming mostly from other European countries will last till Saturday 15. The exhibition sites of the participating companies will jointly cover as much as 55,600 m2 of the exhibition area. Parallel to the FOR ARCH an exhibition of technical literature and periodicals Expert 2001 will be held. Both the events have been organized by the ABF Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Division; the trade fair itself has been organized by ABF, a.s.

In contrast to the previous years, this year's exhibition covers a substantially larger open-air area (over 4,000 m2) utilized to put on show a number of interesting exhibits, e.g. scaffolding, construction machinery and the like. For as many as one fifth of the enrolled companies it is their first occasion to participate in the FOR ARCH. The bulk of foreign exhibitors come traditionally from Germany, whose official state-hired exhibition site offers the participating firms state cost subsidies - FOR ARCH is the only Czech trade fair thus favoured by the German Government. This year the trade fair is favoured with a strong representation of British and Turkish companies; as a special feature can be seen the participation of four firms from the remote Republic of South Africa.

This year the FOR ARCH is focused on the feature topic of problems of building recovery in the broadest sense of the term. "The companies enrolled to treat the feature topic of this year's FOR ARCH offer information, advertising & promotional materials and smaller exhibits installed at special panels. Moreover, each exhibition ground of a company concentrating on the feature topic is designated with the "REGENERACE" (RECOVERY) logo. The problems of building recovery, including the related issues of legislation, energy conservation, etc., are also strongly represented in many of the accompanying events. Let us mention as an example the Construction Forum of Municipalities & Communities, a country-wide meeting of officials representing the Municipal and Community Authorities. An event of special importance will be the Engineering Day, organized as an annual meeting of civil engineers from the whole Czech Republic with the participation of their foreign colleagues. The general public may attend an open program focused on building recovery and held at the Conference Centre of the Entrance Hall. The non-expert populace will certainly appreciate comprehensive consultancy services offered by a number of the exhibitors directly on their premises.

A single event out of a number of FOR ARCH associated events, whose importance should be specifically emphasized, is a competition called Stavba roku 2001 (Construction Project of 2001). This competition is held each year to support quality end-to-end construction projects covering full range of structural activities starting with the shell construction and finishing with the crafted details. This year, the ninth of the competition existence, more than forty structures from all over the Czech Republic were entered to participate. From among other competitions let us name the Competition of the best-selling technical publication on urbanism, architecture, civil engineering, home living & interior arrangement entitled Zlatá pečeť FOR ARCH (FOR ARCH Golden Seal); the Grand Prix FOR ARCH competition of the best exhibit; and the Competition of apprentices in construction industry.

Both the exhibitors and the visitors will be awaited by a number of pleasant innovations. In three halls the old, already unsuitable floors, have been replaced with concrete surfaces; the transport routes and passageways between halls have been covered with a layer of asphalt and other parts have been paved with dove-tailed tiles; to a comprehensive reconstruction was treated the access road on the airport parking lot. Owing to the ever-increasing number of exhibitors and visitors from abroad, all information will be available not only in Czech, but also in English. The visitors having arrived in cars will newly receive their parking tickets jointly with the entrance tickets to expedite the parking formalities. In the preparatory stage and during the Fair itself the ABF website (www.abf.cz, www.forarch.cz) will host what is known as the Cyberspace Fair offering information updated several times a day and focused on the Fair preparation and proceedings, and illustrated with photographs. The visitors are encouraged to arrange for an approximately thirty minute appointment with the exhibitors using an original reservation on-line system having been in operation on the ABF and FOR ARCH website since early August.

The exhibition site is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00. The basic entrance fee is CZK 150 CZK, the reduced rate is CZK 70. Visitors buying through Internet may have the entrance ticket for just CZK 100. Those, who decide not to use their own cars, may enjoy a Free Fair Route No. 758, which will take them from the "Českomoravská" metro station (Line B) as far as the exhibition site gates, stopping also at the "Vysočanská" and "Na Proseku" stations (both Line B). Some exhibitors will try to entertain their visitors with competitions and performances by popular actors, singers and other showbiz personalities.

The position of ABF Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Division becomes ever stronger among trade fair organizers at the Prague trade fair market . As reported by Amasia Expo, s.r.o, the company's market share of 15.84 percent in 1997 rose the next year to achieve 17.35 percent, in 1999 amounted to 23.63 percent, and the last year it reached the value of 27.53 percent. Despite in 2000 the total exhibition area sold to exhibitors in Prague decreased by 6 percent, ABF, a.s. managed to boost its year-to-year sales figures by almost 10 percent. The Prague Exhibition Centre Letňany (PVA) substantially improved its leading position on the Prague exhibition market. This improvement can be attributed to the fact that starting from this year's autumn season the second largest Fair Administrator, Terinvest (among other companies) resolved to hire PVA for their projects.

PhD. Jan Novotný
Member of the Board of Directors
and Director of Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Division of ABF, a.s.

For more information please contact: ABF Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Division (Veletržní správa ABF, a. s.)
Ms. Martina Průšová, Phone: +4202/22 891 138, prusova@abf.cz
or the Fair manager Ms. Milena Plecitá,
Phone:+4202/ 22 891 130,
plecita@abf.cz
or possibly ARISTON P.R.,
Phone: +4202/24 25 26 35,
ariston@aristonpr.cz