Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has released plans to expand its facilities, with the eventual goal of drawing in more regional and international exhibitions, meetings and conventions.
New components that will be developed in phases include a 70-storey iconic office tower, a business hotel, a serviced apartment, a new 54,000m2 exhibition space, and an auditorium with seating capacity for 7,000 people. There will also be 40 meeting rooms (an increase from the current 17), and a new retail podium of 55,000m2.
Meanwhile, existing facilities such as the Dewan Merdeka plenary hall which can accommodate 3,000 pax in theatre-style, and the adjoining 560-key, Seri Pacific Hotel Kuala Lumpur, will be refurbished.
Khalidah Dan Yunan, PWTC’s director of sales and marketing, enthused: “Once the development is completed, PWTC will have the biggest exhibition and convention space in the country.”
Upon completion, the new integrated PWTC complex will provide seamless connectivity between its different components and with the city. For example, access to KL City Centre will be improved via pedestrian linkage programme, and City Hall’s River of Life project which is to revitalise the Klang and Gombak rivers.
Khalidah further revealed PWTC’s sales team has grown over the past year to a team of a dozen who are aggressively looking for local, regional and international business through attendance at tradeshows such as Incentive Travel, Conventions, Meetings Asia (IT&CM Asia) in September this year, which it will take part in for the first time.
This is a 360-degree turn, where in the past there was no dedicated sales team to market the convention and exhibition centre, and the bulk of PWTC’s business were made up of domestic exhibitions and meetings.
PWTC was built in 1985 and it hosted its first event, PATA Convention, a year later.
