2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai

HONG KONG: "Sleepless in Shanghai asCity Celebrates", "Dream Comes True", "We won! China Won! Shanghai won!... thesewere the emotional headlines in the normally staid as the 132nd generalassembly of the International Bureau of Exhibitions (BIE), meeting in MonteCarlo, awarded the right to hold the 2010 World Expo to mainland China''s mostdynamic city, Shanghai. While the news did not release the intense wave ofnationalistic rejoicing which followed the International Olympic Council''sdecision to award the 2008 Games to Beijing, there was still a fair amount oforganized exultation in Shanghai when the news came through late Tuesday thatthe protracted struggle to win the 2010 Expo had been successful.Sixcities have competed for that honour. Buenos Aires in was the first to withdrawdue to the Argentine economic crisis. Polish and Mexican cities were the firstto fall by the wayside in Tuesday''s voting. Then Moscow was eliminated. Oncethought of as the main rival to Shanghai, the Russian capital lost crucialsupport as a result of the recent terrorist invasion of a Moscow theatre.Finally, it was a straight all-Asian race between Shanghai and the SouthKorean city of Yeosu, which Shanghai won by 54 votes to 34.In a way thevictory of Shanghai was inevitable. Money is no object when China seeksinternational status. None of the other contestant''s could match Shanghai''scampaign resources, as it freely spent, to give only one example, US$96,000 forevery one of several full page colour advertisements in the London-based. One reason therewas a less euphoric reaction in Shanghai, after victory was declared, was thatthe worldly-wise Shanghainese had all along been assuming that they would win.Along the way, the city pledged to the BIE that it would subsidize poorerdeveloping nations to the tune of US$100 million so that they could afford toexhibit at Shanghai''s Expo. Beijing is thus all set to follow an Asianpath already blazed by Japan and South Korea. Japan held the 1964 Olympic Gamesin Tokyo to mark its return to the ranks of developed nations. This was quicklyfollowed by Expo 1970 in Osaka, used to primarily exhibit Japan''s economic andcultural achievements with the theme of "Progress and Harmony for Mankind".A 1975 Expo was held in Okinawa, a 1985 Expo was held in the science cityof Tsukuba, and the 2005 Expo will be held in Aichi with the theme of.Two decades afterJapan, South Korea hosted the 1988 Olympic Games to mark its economic rise,followed also five years later by the 1993 Taejon Expo with the theme of "Thechallenge of a new road to development".Two decades after South Korea,China will be hosting the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo in closerproximity, the better to focus its rapid opening up to the outside world and itsrapid growth as an industrial nation since 1978. Shanghai''s publicityclaims that this will be the first time that an Expo has been held in adeveloping country. But for those who take China''s growth statistics at facevalue, by 2010 coastal China at least will already be in the ranks of developedeconomies. Many planners and officials will be "sleepless in Shanghai"during the next eight years as they seek to make the 2010 World Fair andExposition an occasion to asserting their city''s role as East Asia''s maininternational centre.