Shanghai Party chief Yu Zhengsheng told Hong Kong’s Phoenix Satellite TV that next year’s Shanghai World Expo is expected to break even and the event, costing nearly twice as much as the Beijing Olympics, may even make a profit. This is a very optimistic view and will need some clever accountancy at the end to make it even look remotely right.Shanghai Party chief Yu Zhengsheng said that if the city government does make a profit (which shows he may not be as solidly comfortable with the forecast as he might wish), it will build affordable housing on the Expo site for low-income citizens.
Yu Zhengsheng said, "I estimate that the investment in the Shanghai Expo can be recovered."
In the history of the World Expo, only a third of organizers made a profit from the global event.
The overall budget for the Shanghai Expo is RMB28.6 billion ($4.19 billion). This is made up of RMB18 billion for the construction of the Expo site and RMB10.6 billion for running costs during the May to October event.
Shanghai Daily said the biggest problem for the Expo might be the huge number of visitors.
The organizer is considering bringing forward the opening time of the Expo site by one or two hours from the planned 9 am. People can take pictures, take a walk or just have a rest before the opening of the pavilions, which is set to be at 9:30am.
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