by Selwyn Manning

A trade fair associated with APEC has angered exhibitors due to a lack of interest by New Zealand companies.

The fair has been deemed a flop by its largest exhibitor, Rodulf Gutman. After all the effort the company put into presenting itself to APEC, the fair has proved a disaster.

A Gutman spokesperson says the fair’s failing is due to the host nation, New Zealand, not giving it backing. In past years, APEC host countries promoted and presented the trade fair to success.

But, the New Zealand Government decided this time the trade fair would be organised by the private sector.

Gutman's area export manager, Edmund Balzer, has said he was told by the organisers there would be hundreds of exhibitors from around the Asia Pacific region. Instead there were fewer than 30.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>