Respectable Secretary General Mr. Loscertales,

Respectable Vice President Mr. DURANCE,

Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning!

Nearly a year ago, and also at here, with support from the BIE and the CCIP, the Shanghai World Expo Bureau organized the first Seminar on Expo Shanghai Online. Personally, I believe the meeting deserves a place in the history of world expo, because of the concept of virtual expo it proposed, which is likely to become a meaningful tendency for the future world expositions.

I still remember the remarks by Mr. Loscertales at that seminar, he said that “the virtual expo will continue the physical one, and will introduce our world expo into a new dimension of openness, accessibility, education and solidarity”. And that is what our Convention calls for. In an age when the information technology keeps growing, I believe, how to combine the real and the virtual world will become an important topic for the future expo organizers. We, as the organizer of the world expo 2010, are very much honored to be a forerunner.

Now, we are heading for our first milestone-- to complete the participation confirmation work by June 30, 2009. So far, already 163 participants have joined Expo Online, 19 of them will build the online experiencing pavilion. In the opinion of many participants, Expo Online is not only a choice; it is also a chance. Later this morning, several countries will hand over their confirmation forms, and will share with us their interpretation and expectation of this initiative.

We have made steady progress in many aspects. As for the system construction,

• We’ve finished the first prototype DEMO of experiencing pavilion. Our technical people will make a presentation of the DEMO, to show you how an experiencing pavilion will look like and how it will function.
• The first edition of the Expo Online website will be launched later this year at www.expo.cn. We’ve finished the structural and page design, and are now working to improve the background functions.
• We’ve also amended the technical specifications for the experiencing pavilion, adding the regulations of web plug-in and online pavilion homepage.

As for the participation services:

• The first five recommended service providers have been selected, their information can now be found on our official website.
• The Collaborative Working Platform has been developed for test operation. It is designed for online communication and document transfer, between the organizer, the participant and the developer.

Equal efforts have also been made elsewhere: we are now setting up a content team, formulating the mechanism and the manual for operation and maintenance, including the trouble-shooting strategy. We are also in talk with Google, world’s NO. 1 search engine and ISP, for a worldwide campaign to promote expo online.

Now we are thinking more about how to make the virtual expo 2010 successful, splendid and unforgettable. And this relies on your support in the following two aspects:

The first is your timely confirmation. Counting from today, there are only 397 days left till the official opening of both the physical and the virtual expo 2010. Much work needs to be done by the participants during this period, such as team building, developer tendering, construction, delivery and testing. Just construction work alone will take at least half a year. So, if confirmation of participation is delayed, it will be difficult to deliver even part of the online pavilion by Sept. 30 of this year as required by the Organizer.

Mr. Hua Junduo, the Commissioner-General of China, also made this clear in a recent letter to his counterparts. Here please let me stress again, that the deadline for participating in the experiencing pavilion falls just around this moment, and a too late decision-making will interfere the overall progression of expo online, and will make it difficult for us to provide other participants with due services.

To our pleasure, participants to build the stand-alone pavilions in the real expo, have basically expressed interest or willingness of building a virtual experiencing pavilion. Some participants of the browsing pavilion are also staying touch with us, hoping to upgrade to the experiencing version. This has displayed your desire of boosting communication and promotion through the virtual expo, and this has displayed your confidence in the project as well.

Of course we have noticed the unexpected global economic recession, which has brought some participants into financial difficulties, where the balanced use of funds has become a big problem. We noticed this, so we timely revised our sponsorship policy, allowing participants to display all their expo sponsors and partners in the experiencing pavilion. We are also seeking for flexible cooperation with participants, aiming to offer relief in funds, technology or other aspects. If you are interested, please feel free to contact us.

Secondly, we strongly suggest the confirmed participants to kick off your development and construction work as quick as possible. Here I would like to nail down the steps you need to follow:

•  Step 1, to set up your expo online team. There should be technical people in the team to give professional comments and suggestions. The team should also keep a daily communication channel with its developer and the Organizer.
• Step 2, to plan your work, including your procedures, time schedule, budget and so on.
• Step 3, to select a qualified and experienced service provider.
• Step 4, to compile your “Online Pavilion Exhibition and Construction Proposal”, and submit it before July 31, 2009.
• Step 5, to produce and complete your online experiencing pavilion, and deliver it before Sept. 30, 2009.

As the Organizer of Expo 2010, we will work with you very closely, and will provide our full support and improved services throughout the buildup of your experiencing pavilions. And by doing so, we will be able to expect your very creative, and very special and unique virtual presence at Expo 2010.

Thank you very much!