Speaker: Victor Mallet, Chief Asia Correspondent of the Financial Times

In Paris, I lived 20 minutes' walk from the Eiffel Tower, and a very pleasant walk it was too.

The point of my mentioning the Eiffel Tower is because it was built as a temporary structure for the Paris Expo of 1900, but remains to this day the pre-eminent symbol of Paris.

The message is clear: when you think about the Expo, think long-term. Don't just consider the immediate economic advantages of the show.

One of the ironies apparent to those who look at urban policies in developed and developing countries is this: many Western cities, including Paris under its present city government, are trying to curb the use of private cars and promote bicycles and public transport - because they have seen, as Beijing is starting to see, that making more room for cars on the roads just invites more cars and more pollution; but many Asian cities, believing that cars are prestigious and represent the future, are going in the other direction. In the long run, this does not make for a Better City or a Better Life.

Under both the former British and the present Hong Kong government, public transport in Hong Kong has been pretty efficient. But successive administrations neglected to look after the harbour, which should be as much of a tourist attraction as the river is to Shanghai. Raw sewage was poured into the harbour and there was no vision of making the area around it attractive to tourists. There is a dispute about this raging again now in Hong Kong following the latest move to reclaim land from the sea.

Yet the experience of Paris and London shows how cities can change to meet changing demands. Shanghai can probably learn something from this as it begins to promote the Expo.