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发表于 3-11-2009 08:38 PM
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BMW fleet for Apec meetings

By Christopher Tan
LEADERS of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum will be travelling in style.
German luxury carmaker BMW is supplying close to 300 cars to ferry the high-profile participants - including United States President Barack Obama - to and from the Apec meetings being hosted in Singapore.
Yesterday, BMW Asia held a symbolic ceremony to hand over the 295-strong fleet, consisting mainly of BMW 5-series and some 7-series cars.
It is one of several car sponsorships BMW has taken part in over the years.
Unlike previous occasions, however, when such cars were sold to the public at discounted rates after the programme, the 295 BMWs will be kept for other events next year.
The cars are now parked at a military camp in Portsdown Road. The fleet will not be registered, but the cars will wear special number plates.
The sponsorship is sizeable, costing an estimated $18 million, based on the cost of the vehicles before registration taxes.
A spokesman for BMW Asia indicated that although the cars would not be sold and, therefore, would not contribute to BMW sales in Singapore, the sponsorship was a brand-building exercise.
BMW began supplying cars for national events here with the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference held in 1996.
In 2006, it supplied more than 500 cars for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings here.
BMW Asia managing director Johannes Seibert described that as "one of the biggest projects of its kind undertaken by BMW anywhere in the world".
Apec Singapore 2009 will see about 12,000 participants arriving for 114 meetings, starting from this month.
It will culminate in a summit in November to be attended by leaders from the 21 member nations. |
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