Otago to benefit from World Expo

21/10/2008

Phillip Gibson (1963-67) leads a busy life.

Dux and Best All Round Boy in his final year, Phillip graduated BA Hons from Otago University 1971. Along the way he won prizes for best student in Latin (1970 and ’71) and was the Otago University nominee for a Rhodes scholarship in 1971.

He has been a career diplomat since 1972 with early postings to Rome, New York and Manila with assignments in more recent years as Ambassador to Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar,(1992-96); Ambassador to Japan (1999-2004); and a current role as Ambassador to Indonesia. Other senior roles have included Chief Executive, Asia 2000 Foundation of New Zealand (1996-99) and New Zealand Commissioner General, Aichi World Expo Japan (2005).

Time to show off . . . World Expo Commissioner-general Phillip Gibson was in Dunedin last week to encourage Otago to take advantage of New Zealand’s pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Phillip is also the 2010 World Expo Commissioner-general and he was in Dunedin last week to encourage Otago businesses to take advantage of historic links with China and promote their wares at that event in Shanghai.

With 70 million people expected to attend the Expo during the six months it would be open, it would be an excellent opportunity to showcase businesses, education and tourism.

“Otago’s historic connection with China, Shanghai’s involvement in Dunedin’s Chinese garden and the fact that Shanghai and Dunedin were sister cities meant there was an opportunity for Otago to showcase itself”, Phillip said.

The Shanghai expo, which opens on May 1, 2010, will be the largest ever to date.
The previous expo, in Aichi, Japan, in 2005, attracted 22 million people, with 25,000 people a day visiting the New Zealand pavilion.

Phillip said for Shanghai they were planning for 40,000 visitors a day with the New Zealand pavilion .2000sq m, four times that of Aichi. As with the Osaka expo in 1970, Shanghai would showcase China as a global economic super power.

The expo site covered 5.2km of central Shanghai. Because New Zealand was one of the first 12 nations to commit, Mr Gibson said it had secured a favourable site, near China’s pavilion, just inside the main entrance. The Expo theme was Better Cities, Better Life.

The New Zealand pavilion would have a veranda frontage with a large greenstone rock. There would be kapa haka performances and Maori carvers while inside, high-tech scenic images would appear along a 110m walkway. The photographs were of New Zealand beaches, suburbs and cities, countryside, and mountains.

Visitors then come out on to a roof garden. This will feature the vegetation of different New Zealand regions, from the mountains to the coast. A VIP lounge had been built for businesses or groups to use for meetings, displays or presentations.

‘‘What we are doing with the pavilion is a national statement, but the VIP area is an opportunity for regions or businesses to have tailored, specific opportunities, maybe tourism, education, business for Otago people, or sister-city dimension.’’

Phillip met Otago businessmen and the Dunedin City Council last week to inform them of the opportunities, and said the region was already out of the starting blocks, given the symbolism and connection through the sister-city link and the Chinese garden.

‘‘Dunedin’s profile in Shanghai is very significant and it’s a real profile, as evident by Shanghai’s investment in the Chinese garden,’’ he said.

The Government has invested $30 million in the Expo and private funding of another $2 million has been promised. Phillip urged people to take advantage of the investment and opportunity.

‘The Government is providing a venue, an occasion, and overall promotion. The message is, use it.”