Shanghai trains volunteers for Expo
By Chang Tianle (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-07-29 01:32

The World Expo 2010 organizer Wednesday announced the recruitment of the first batch of volunteers for the event as part of its efforts to encourage all residents in Shanghai to participate.

"We wish for everyone to witness the Expo preparations and feel like hosts of World Expo," said Shanghai Vice-Mayor Zhou Yupeng, who is also director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Co-ordination.

China has established an organizational framework to prepare for the World Expo in 2010.

Twenty volunteers are to be recruited soon as the first batch. Training of them is expected to help Shanghai gain the experience it needs to train the large contingent of volunteers it will need.

"We need to create a participation mechanism to enable all people to be part of it. First of all, we should create various opportunities for citizens to have a better understanding of the Expo and make their contribution," Zhou said in a lecture in Shanghai Wednesday.

Shanghai World Expo aims to attract some 70 million visitors during the six month event, that is about 400,000 visitors a day.

"That is to say, we need about 10,000 volunteers to provide various services," he said.

If each group of 10,000 volunteers work for two weeks, roughly 130,000 volunteers will be needed during the Expo.

Students will make up the main volunteer force, but he added that anyone who has a passion for the Expo, including handicapped, are welcomed to join.

They will engage in promotion, organization and planning, and training during the preparation.

The Expo bureau will need more volunteers during the process and all information will be available at its website www.expo2010china.com.

An Expo research centre was established Wednesday, whose major, immediate mission is to write registered reports, which will be submitted to the International Bureau of Exhibitions by May 2005.

Upon approval by the end of next year, Shanghai will be officially the host city for World Expo 2010.

The bureau will also set up a volunteer database to make sure each volunteer is sent to do the most suitable job.

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