"THE preparations for Expo contain many business opportunities," said Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng.

Indeed, the estimated 25 billion yuan (US$3 billion) investment, the expected 70 million visitors and Expo's contribution of an extra 2 per cent into the city's GDP confirms Mayor Han's comment.

Shrewd business people, local, national and international, have already detected the enormous money-making potential of the major world event.

As early as last December, the day the host city for 2010 Expo was to be announced, over a dozen of Shanghai's international hotel bosses gathered together to celebrate the good news. For them, winning the bid meant even better business prospects.

"There will be enormous growth of new hotels," said Hans Hauri, general manager of Shanghai JC Mandarin Hotel. He estimated that for the Expo the city needs 30,000 hotel rooms in addition to the existing 53,000.

"It's not only for the hotel industry, it's also for the retailers, restaurateurs and so on. Shanghai World Expo means billions of renminbi or even billions of US dollars," he added.

According to local authorities, all the new rooms and jobs may not created in Shanghai alone.

Looking at it from a long-term perspective, Shanghai will not be building too many accommodation facilities exclusively for the Expo, according to an official with the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration Commission.

"We need to explore the potential of neighbouring areas and the accommodation capabilities of Suzhou, Wuxi and Hangzhou."

The Yangtze River Delta, consisting of Shanghai and 14 cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, will all be big beneficiaries of Shanghai Expo 2010. Tourism authorities estimated that 30 to 35 per cent of Expo visitors will extend their trip to Shanghai to the Yangtze River Delta, a region rich in tourism resources.

Besides tourism, stronger ties are made possible by the event through shared, exhibition, logistics, construction and trade, said Zhu Linchu, deputy director of Development Research Centre of Shanghai Municipal Government.

Starting from this year, the governments in the area have reached a consensus after numerous discussions and deliberations on how to work together to make the Expo a great success.