Koelnmesse enters into joint venture in Indonesia

Koelnmesse has established a joint venture with the Indonesian trade fair organizer Amara Expo. The new joint venture, PT. Nine Koeln Indonesia, based in the capital city of Jakarta, is Koelnmesse’s eleventh international subsidiary but its first wholly-owned company in Indonesia. With the joint venture and its own on-site team, Koelnmesse aims to drive the further development of the Indonesian trade fair industry while simultaneously expanding access to international markets and business networks.

"Further internationalization is at the core of our corporate strategy," explains Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse. "Our goal is to connect global industries with strong regional ecosystems. Indonesia—and Southeast Asia as a whole—offer enormous potential in this regard."

"The founding of PT. Nine Koeln Indonesia marks an important milestone in our collaboration," says Danny Budiharto, Chairman of Amara Expo. The joint venture will create high-quality platforms and open up even more opportunities for Indonesian companies to network globally.

As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia is recording stable annual economic growth of around 5 per cent, driven by favorable demographic trends. The Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) sector is developing particularly dynamically: industry growth of up to 15 per cent is expected for the current year.

The joint venture builds on an existing collaboration between the two organizations. The first Interzum Jakarta was held as early as 2024, followed last year by the first International Hardware Fair Indonesia 2025. In 2026, this cooperation will be further expanded with Iffina+ powered by imm cologne and Ifmac Woodmac, both of which—along with Interzum Jakarta and the International Hardware Fair Indonesia—will take place in September.

"Our collaboration with Amara Expo has consistently delivered strong results at numerous events," says Mathias Küpper, Regional President APAC at Koelnmesse.

To further develop the trade fair business across borders, Koelnmesse has a centrally consolidated yet regionally focused management structure in the Asia-Pacific region, headquartered in Singapore. From there, the collaboration among the subsidiaries in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, China, and Hong Kong is coordinated and strategically advanced. In mainland China alone, Koelnmesse is represented by three offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.