US struggling to build 2010 Expo pavilion

The United States may be unable to finance a pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Amid the worst recession in decades, US organisers are struggling to raise the $61m (€47.1m) needed for a national pavilion at the Expo, expected to be the biggest ever.

Some observers in a city endlessly promoting an “Olympic Games of economy, science and technology” are not amused by the idea of the US not coming.

“I’m sorry to say it is just unbelievable that the richest country in the world would decide to ignore the Expo,” said Shen Dingli, who directs the Centre of American Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University.

China likely would see the US absence as a slap in the face – and a massive missed business opportunity. A record 70 million visitors are expected.

Just about everyone else, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, will be there – though China itself is building joint pavilions for poorer countries.

The US exhibit is struggling because, unlike those of most other countries, the American exhibit must be privately funded. A 1991 US law prohibits government financing of such events.

“We’re doing the best we can, but we are in the midst of an economic crisis,” said Ellen Eliasoph, a Beijing-based lawyer who was in Shanghai this week wooing potential sponsors of the pavilion in the American business community.

For Shanghai, the Expo is its chance to overhaul a city and show off China’s dramatic change – much like Beijing did for last year’s Olympics. Shanghai newspapers are counting down the days until the event.

China’s business capital is rebuilding a two-square-mile swathe of former shipyards, steel mills and slums along both sides of the river that divides the city of 20 million.

Shanghai would not be the first world expo the US has missed.

It sat out the 2000 Expo in Hanover, Germany, because of insufficient funding.

In 2005, the US pavilion at the Aichi, Japan Expo was built only with help from Japanese companies, including Toyota Motor North America.