Interview: Chinese presence one of best in Milan Expo: BIE secretary-general

China's presence in the Milan world exposition that will conclude here on Saturday was an outstanding one, Vicente Loscertales, Secretary-General of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), told Xinhua in an exclusive interview recently.

"The Chinese participation in this Milan Expo is brilliant," the head of the organization in charge of overseeing world expos highlighted. Not only there was a number of activities of Chinese provinces. "In general, I think that Chinese presence in the Expo has been one of the best," Loscertales stressed.

China has as many as three pavilions in the six-month event, a national pavilion and two corporate pavilions, Loscertales noted. "It is the first time that I see a country having such an important and active participation in an expo," he insisted.

"When you walk around the site and you see the activities, you will see that the percentage of activities of China is enormous. I have not compared which country has more activities, but in any case I do not think there are many countries which have done more for this expo than China," he added.

In his view, the Italian event has been a "huge success," looking at the "millions of visitors who are happy with the Expo and the way the Italian government has been involved, using the Expo as a platform for the development of international relations, trade, exports and tourism, and also to create a network of countries which are going to cooperate actively with Italy."

Citizens also lived the Milan Expo with a sense of pride, Loscertales pointed out. "On Saturday we will close the Expo, and I think we will feel well and see that the mission has been accomplished," he said.

He told Xinhua he especially appreciated the "very special architecture" of this world exposition, composed of not huge yet very attractive buildings. "In fact a special element was the protagonist role of national pavilions, which were the main attractions of this expo and all had large numbers of visitors," he said.

Loscertales said he was impressed by China's national pavilion. "I think the pavilion has a very attractive shape, which shows China's rural architecture but also is a very modern and functional building," he noted.

Among the pavilions that he liked the most there was the World Expo Museum Pavilion, co-built by the BIE and Shanghai Municipal Government, and authorized as the sole official museum and documentation center of the BIE.

Earlier this week, a 25-meter-long wall from the Expo Milano 2015, on which participants pinned a rich diversity of materials, was donated to the Shanghai-based World Expo Museum, which covers a construction area of roughly 46,000 square meters and will open to the public in 2016.

"Yesterday I was visiting again the World Expo Museum Pavilion and I saw the people not just entering and going, but really watching the videos, and that for us means building the future of expos," Loscertales highlighted.

In his view, news expos are building "the vision of what we want to become, and are a new catalyst for urban development." For example, for the first time in the history of world expositions, the Milan expo was accompanied by a project, "Expo in citta" (Expo in the city), involving the entire city with thousands of activities, exhibitions, concerts and initiatives for all citizens, he noted.

The BIE Day, celebrated on Friday, exactly aimed at presenting the past, present and future expos as "very attractive events to educate citizens on the values of education, cooperation, solidarity, innovation and creativity," Loscertales went on saying.

"An expo cannot be successful if it does not transform the city, and I think that now expos have to be linked to the city more and more," he told Xinhua. "On Saturday we are going to celebrate the World Cities Day, a legacy of the Shanghai Expo 2010," the secretary-general underlined.

He explained that the World Cities Day was designated with the general theme of Shanghai Expo "Better City, Better Life" every Oct. 31 by the United Nations (UN) to push forward cooperation among countries in contributing to sustainable urban development around the world. "I think this is the future, this is the way to go," Loscertales concluded. Enditem