by Xinhua writers Zheng Qihang, Wangqin

    BERLIN, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The 2000 Hanover Expo chief executive has expressed his best wishes for the 2010 Shanghai International Expo, saying "I wish it will become a big, big party for people from all over the world."

    Wolfgang Schatz, CEO of the EXPO 2000 Office for the City of Hanover, shared his expo organization experience in a recent interview with Xinhua.

    BIG BIG PARTY

    "Everything about Shanghai Expo is going according to plan, and we believe it will be as perfect as the Beijing Olympic Games," Schatz said.

    After World War II, expos have become "a big, big party," where people from all over the world communicate, live and have fun together, Schatz said. He hoped the upcoming Shanghai Expo would also become a big party, enhancing communication and friendship among people from various parts of the world, while best presenting the glamour of Shanghai and the hospitality of the Shanghai people.

    In order to achieve that, great attention should be made to the people who work for the Expo as well as details of the services, he said.

    The most important people working at the Expo were those working at the different national pavilions, because most of them were educated young people or students who would live and work in Shanghai for at least half a year.

    A good experience during this time would make them the best ambassadors for Shanghai and China when they returned to their own countries, therefore they should be well treated to make sure their experience in Shanghai was a pleasant one.

    In the Hanover Expo, a project was set to serve those 15,000-20,000 young people working in the national pavilions, and various sports clubs and facilities varying from soccer to sailing were made available to them.

    "It works very very well. For example, you can play soccer with people from all the nations and this will stay in your mind. This will be the story you are going to tell when you go back home," he said.

    In the area of services, great attention must be paid to details like helping tourists buy tickets more easily, designing more efficient routes, handling the problem of dining and entertaining people waiting in queues, he said.

    In the Hanover Expo, a "host city guide program" was developed to solve those detail problems and high-caliber volunteers, who were ready to offer help anytime, played a key role.

    ECONOMIC BALANCE

    Every city which hosts the Expo wants to balance its finances and Shanghai would be no exception, Schatz said.

    But the issue was not just about the face value of the Expo itself. "In fact, there was just one expo which made revenue itself, and that was the first one in 1841 in London, earning 6 million pounds. All other expos lost money. The 2000 Hanover Expo lost about 1 billion euro, but the important thing is about the indirect returns," he said.

    "Because of the Expo, we received finance for our main railway station, new roads and traffic system, we have new, huge modern fairgrounds, and also because of the Expo, we attracted people from all over the world to Hanover and to Germany, so the indirect revenue was big. The overall economic returns reached 1.2 billion euros, so all in all we earned 200 million euros," he said.

    ISSUES AFTER THE EXPO

    Schatz also mentioned another important issue that every host city has to answer, and that is, "what will happen after the Expo?"

    Of course it would be perfect if all buildings constructed for the event could be put to good use after it, but the reality was a lot of buildings were built as "showcases", which made it hard to use them afterwards, he said.

    For those showcase buildings, the best way was to demolish them as soon as possible, because the maintenance costs would grow with time. Therefore, it was necessary, however sorry everyone might feel for their disappearance, because the middle and long-term development of the city and the country had to be taken into consideration, not the Expo only, he added.

    As for the issue of possible unemployment after the event, Schatz said that it was not as serious as some had feared.

    In Hanover, between 60 to 70 percent of the employees were from abroad, and most of the others were transferred from other work units and organizations and returned to their original posts after the event. For the rest, the expo working experience also turned out to have helped them in landing jobs in similar fair projects.

Special Report:  Expo 2010 Shanghai China