NATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTRE

That this House congratulates the National Exhibition Centre on being selected by Lions International for its Conference in 1998, which will probably be the biggest meeting in the world with 25,000 delegates; applauds how this was made possible by Birmingham's private sector community raising more than ú1 million as a hosting budget; notes that this success follows the European Cardiology Conference in 1996, previously exclusive to other European cities, with 11,500 delegates; recalls that in 1995 NEC hosted the largest (130) number of exhibitions in Europe, with 38,000 exhibiting companies, a total of 4 million visitors and an estimated ú70 million extra spending in Britain by foreign businesses; and therefore regrets seeing examples, even after this year's sorry decision to site the Millennium Exhibition at Greenwich, of further Government support for exhibition development in East London which clearly does not have the same potential as the NEC to place Britain in a properly commanding position on the European exhibition conference centre stage.