World Expo cost going up

The Shanghai municipal government said building the 2010 World Expo site would cost US$3.6 billion, up from its last estimate of US$3 billion. The news heightened concerns that the fair would fail to break even. The cost increase is partly blamed on the original site doubling in size. Chinese media also reported that estimates on related infrastructure projects had been revised upward to US$36 billion from US$30 billion. The most recent World Expo, held in Germany in 2000, ran up US$1 billion in losses. Only 18 million of the 40 million people projected to visit the Hannover fair actually materialized.