An official from the Shanghai World Expo Bureau said on Friday
that the city still faces a critical shortage of qualified
professionals to plan and run the 2010 World Exposition.
The information was released by the International Conference on
Human Resources Strategy for the 2010 World Expo, days before a
National People's Congress (NPC) deputy urged Beijing to step up
training of management professionals for the 2008
Olympic Games.
Dai Liu, deputy director-general of the Shanghai World Expo
Bureau, said: "The number of exhibition professionals with
appropriate experience, knowledge and ability now available in the
city are only one-third of what we need."
Many of those currently working in the exhibition business do
not possess proper professionalism and ability, according to
Professor Zheng Jianyu from the Institute of Tourism at Shanghai
Normal University.
"Among the approximate 5,000 employees in the field, only 52
percent of them have received adequate training," said Zheng. "And
there are less than 50 experienced senior project managers and less
than 100 general personnel in the field.
"Shanghai just offered relevant courses at two universities,
Shanghai Normal University and the Shanghai Institution of Foreign
Trade, last year, and their students won't graduate before 2008,"
Zheng added.
"The number of simultaneous interpreters in the city available
for every international exhibition is under ten," said Professor
Jin Hui, also from Shanghai Normal University.
An analysis by Bearing Point, a multinational consulting
company, says that Shanghai needs at least 2,000 exhibition
professionals covering a wide range of fields to run the upcoming
Expo.
In Beijing on Monday, NPC Deputy Ji Baocheng, president of the
Beijing-based Renmin University of China, urged the city to
increase its training of management professionals for the 2008
Olympic Games.
Ji said the training should target senior management
professionals of the organizing committee, athletes, coaches and
referees, volunteers, security guards and service workers, as well
as people in the street.
(China Daily Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2005)