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William Kazer

THE TEAM  reviewing Shanghai's bid to hold Expo 2010 has come and gone.

On their way out they gave Shanghai a hearty pat on the back, declaring the city had made an exceptional proposal and would be a superb host for the world's fair.

While that is flattering, it is no cause for hoteliers and travel agents to start popping the champagne just yet. It's nice to hear praise from the assessment delegation but there is no need to get carried away.

Shanghai was the first of the six contending cities to be evaluated and the others will now take their turn. Moscow is widely seen as Shanghai's most formidable competitor, and no doubt it too will win praise - as will all of the others before a decision is made in December.

But there are plenty of reasons for the enthusiasm of the review team from the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris.

For one, Beijing rolled out the red carpet for them. The delegation met President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and State Councillor Wu Yi while they stopped in China's capital.

This is the kind of display made for a head of state. It may not be the type of reception the team will get in the other cities which include Buenos Aires, Queretaro in Mexico, Wroclaw in Poland and Yosu in South Korea. In Buenos Aires, leaders have more urgent matters to deal with and less money to throw at such a gathering.

In Shanghai, the delegation also received VIP treatment. Mayor Chen Liangyu cut short a stay in Beijing. He flew back to the east China city where he led the presentations to the delegation.

But the delegation was most impressed by the appearance of broad support for Shanghai's effort to stage the fair. Undoubtedly, there is real enthusiasm in Shanghai for the event. Ask a Shanghainese about the 2008 Olympics and you just might hear that Shanghai would have been a good - if not better - choice than Beijing.

Naturally, Beijing had to be the first Chinese city to stage the games, even though Shanghai does not have the political baggage that the capital had to carry. So Expo 2010 would not be a bad consolation prize.

After long years of neglect, Shanghai is becoming an economic powerhouse and is reclaiming what it sees as its rightful place in the world. A major international fair would go a long way in that direction and put the city firmly on the world map. The city did its best to attract key events like the Fortune Global Forum in 1999 and the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum last year.

The mayor has estimated that 50 million people would attend the fair during its six-month run. Other observers believed the fair could attract more than the record 64 million people who attended the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, Japan.

Mr Chen noted there were 130 million people living in Shanghai and its neighbouring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Those residents would be potential visitors. Even without the fair, Shanghai attracted 64.7 million domestic visitors and two million foreign tourists last year.

China does know how to get people to go where it wants. For one, it could decide to give them all a holiday - as long as they come to the fair. More likely, it will use the Communist Party apparatus to encourage work units to organise trips, picking up much of the cost.

This was the preferred method for the party when it marked its 80th anniversary, hiring buses and giving time off to the party faithful who trekked to a shrine to the party's first meeting. Support is something the Government knows how to turn on - and off. State media pitched in with plenty of coverage for the bid proposal. Floral displays, banners as well as huge billboards appeared on street corners ahead of the review team's arrival while thousands of residents signed petitions in support of the bid.

While there are no doubt people who wonder whether the money could be better spent elsewhere, there won't be too much debate over this issue.

Regardless of the merits of their arguments, the leadership has made up its mind and that is enough for us to know. The costs will not really be out of Shanghai's grasp, however. Officials estimate US$2.5 billion will be needed to prepare the site while other upgrades would be five to 10 times that amount. But the additional costs for infrastructure improvements might have to be spent anyway. The expo is just a handy administrative tool to speed up the money flow.

The review team said it was satisfied with the financial aspects of the bid, though it gave no details. Shanghai certainly could find corporate sponsors for a project that has strong government backing. That would help offset some of the shortfalls with ticket sales. While there may be lots of visitors to the fair, they probably won't have the spending power of the Japanese who toured the Osaka expo. Ticket prices would have to be considerably cheaper.

More importantly, the delegation disclosed that Beijing had promised to provide at least some of the funds, if necessary. So maybe here is another reason for all of the fuss. If you can use other people's money, why not?



Delegation visit exposes lure of courting events with prestige