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Recent Visitors
Businesses urged to back S.A. presence at Shanghai Expo
2009. 9 September
by David Hendricks
(mysanantonio.com)
San Antonio lawyer Jose Villarreal, former Mayor Henry Cisneros and City Council member Elisa Chan made an appeal to the San Antonio business community Tuesday to support a significant city presence for Shanghai Expo 2010, an event expected to draw 70 million people.
San Antonio has an exceptional opportunity to raise its awareness in the world’s most populous nation, Cisneros and Chan said, because Villarreal recently was named the U.S. commissioner general for Shanghai’s world’s fair. That automatically makes him the most popular American in the Chinese city of about 18 million, they said.
Among those offering support Tuesday for a San Antonio presence were CPS Energy Chief Executive Milton Lee and H-E-B Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Butt.
Lee and Butt were among about 50 business, government and education leaders who attended an informational luncheon at the Plaza Club on Tuesday. Butt said his company will import 4,000 containers of Chinese-made goods this year, most of them shipped through Mexican seaport Lázaro Cárdenas and arriving at Port San Antonio.
Villarreal was appointed commissioner general — an unpaid ambassador-level position — by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in early June. He said the Shanghai event, sanctioned by Paris’ Bureau of International Expositions, will draw 60 million Chinese visitors and 10 million foreigners.
“This will be the largest event in human history,” said Villarreal, a senior adviser with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.
Cisneros said that between $500,000 and $1 million, if raised by the private sector and local governments, could elevate San Antonio’s image to a level similar to efforts being made by large U.S. corporations.
San Antonio could send a delegation to the fair, led by Mayor Julián Castro, who also attended Tuesday’s luncheon. Cisneros said the U.S. pavilion also could stage “San Antonio Days.” This could be at the pavilion, which will have a performing arts stage at its entrance, about the same time as the three “Texas Days” in June 2010, which already are scheduled.
The fair will operate from May 1 to Oct. 31. Villarreal will live in Shanghai during the six-month run.
Whereas the 2008 Beijing Olympics was meant to showcase China to the world, the Shanghai Expo will give the world a chance to market to the Chinese, said Nicholas Winslow, president of USA Pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010. The nonprofit organization was established by the State Department this year to raise the funds and construct the $61 million U.S. pavilion.
The fair will have participation from 192 nations, 45 nongovernmental organizations and numerous global corporations, said Winslow, a California resident with a background in Hollywood and theme parks.
San Antonio’s 1968 world’s fair, HemisFair ’68, had participation from 30 governments.
U.S. companies that have made gifts to the U.S. pavilion include General Electric Co., Pepsico Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Boeing Co. and 3M, Winslow said.
“My hope is that the business community will support this endeavor because it will pay dividends in the future,” Castro said.
“Texas can touch 70 million people. Our commitment is in the process,” said Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.
Chan, president of Unintech Consulting Engineers Inc. and one of the few U.S. elected officials born in China — more specifically, Taiwan — said, “I think this is our moment.”
Chan and Cisneros said San Antonio can use the fair to spread awareness of the city to the top Chinese government leaders who still control the nation’s largest state-owned companies and are looking to invest more than $2 trillion in foreign reserves. “They will invest,” Chan said. “San Antonio can get some of those investments. Other cities are not positioned for this like San Antonio is.”
Villarreal, a longtime friend of former President Bill and Hillary Clinton, was appointed commissioner general after Chinese officials made it clear to the secretary of state in February they expected a U.S. presence at the expo.
Villarreal’s daughter, Sara, already lives in Shanghai and plans to open a Western fashion boutique there.
By February, only $3 million had been pledged for the pavilion, with little prospects for more. The donations now total $37 million, a figure expected to rise to $45 million within 10 days, Winslow said.
The Free Trade Alliance San Antonio already has a contract with a third-party company, Omega International Group, which operates a trade and investment marketing office in Beijing. Alliance President and Chief Executive Kyle Burns said the alliance will coordinate with the city for an expo presence.
“Because of our geography, San Antonio understands trade and embraces new markets,” said Beth Costello, director of the city’s International Affairs Department.
Costello helped organize San Antonio’s delegation to the 2005 world’s fair in Aichi, Japan, as a way to show appreciation for Toyota Motor Co.’s investment in a San Antonio assembly plant.
Source: www.mysanantonio.com