'Special status' at Shanghai expo

Dunedin's sister city relationship with Shanghai will ensure city and business representatives get preferential treatment at the Shanghai World Expo, which opens in May.

Expo commissioner general Phillip Gibson said Dunedin, and by connection Otago and Southland, would have "special status" at the expo, which opens on May 1, an event expected to attract more than 70 million visitors.

Mr Gibson, who was in Dunedin last week, said Shanghai city officials had already defined the limits of their hospitality and access to political and city officials to heads of state, Government ministers and sister cities.

"Dunedin is the only New Zealand city that will receive special status in Shanghai when city and business officials visit," he said.

It was status he said other visitors would "walk over broken glass" to have, and in China such access and courtesy was a sign of importance, Mr Gibson said.

Dunedin mayor Peter Chin recently visited Shanghai and met the city's mayor.

China was once again returning to its historic position as the world's economic powerhouse, with economic growth of 9% to 10%, so it was important that New Zealand had a strong presence.

Mr Gibson said New Zealand was one of the first of 200 countries to commit to the expo, and as a result its pavilion was in a prime central position close to the Chinese site, and in view of one of the city's main bridges.

"In addition to the visitors to the expo, we are going to get literally millions of people seeing the New Zealand pavilion as they go across the bridge each day."

New Zealand's site was already receiving major media coverage, and recently, a major Shanghai publication with a circulation of 600,000 carried a cover story on it, saying it was a must-see pavilion.

The architecturally-designed pavilion has a welcome forecourt where there would be kapahaka groups and large television screens carrying images of New Zealand which were also accessible by Bluetooth.

Further inside the forecourt, another bank of televisions would provide further images of New Zealand stories, which Natural History New Zealand's managing director Mike Stedman helped compile.

Pieces of jade supplied from Otago and Shanghai Museums and another 2000kg piece of West Coast greenstone would also be on display, a further symbol of the special bond between New Zealand and China, Mr Gibson said.

Inside the pavilion, visitors would see images depicting a day in the life of New Zealand from the coast, the suburbs, cities, country and the mountains.

Visitors then move to the roof where there is a display of New Zealand flora and fauna.

Mr Gibson said the message was that New Zealand was a beautiful country, a tourist and education destination, and where its people were innovative, creative and technologically savvy.

"We get those messages across in the way we do it so that people come away from the New Zealand pavilion with the message that New Zealanders know what they're about."