On January 3, the UK embassy in Beijing revealed details of their Shanghai Expo pavilion, "big enough for everyone" and expressed hope that the event will allow closer UK-China cooperation.

Speaking at the press conference, Ambassador Sebastian Wood introduced that creativity and innovation will be a key theme for UK at Expo. He welcomes all guests around the world to visit the UK pavilion.

Wood told China.org.cn: "We invite people to take part in the UK at Expo: whatever your interest, whatever your background, the Pavilion will allow you to explore and find out how the UK can be your partner for the future."

The centerpiece of the UK Pavilion is the Seed Cathedral -- a six storey high cube-like structure, pierced by approximately 60,000 7.5m long slim transparent acrylic rods, which extend outwards and quivers in the breeze. During the day each rod will draw on the daylight to light up the interior. At night, lights inside each rod will illuminate the structure.

Wood said: "The Seed Cathedral is the highlight of the visitor experience, and it represents innovation, creativity, advanced technology, partnerships and nature."

"As the pavilion designer Thomas Heatherwick stressed, the Cathedral has much deeper meaning. The area around the pavilion designed to look like wrapping paper shows that the Cathedral itself is a recently unwrapped gift of friendship to China," he said.

At night, light sources at the end of each rod will allow the whole UK Pavilion structure to glow – visible on the Shanghai skyline and from the nearby Lupu Bridge. The creative sector is the UK's second largest industry after financial services and Shanghai Expo is a once in a generation opportunity for both British and Chinese companies to share expertise, Wood indicated.

"UK's heritage and ongoing investment in creativity and innovation will resonate with Shanghai and the rest of China," Wood told China.org.cn.

The UK invested more than 13 million pounds (US$21.4 million) in the Expo and the pavilion will welcome 70 million estimated visitors, according to chinaview.cn.

Recently, the UK has published a series of new regional preferential policies giving Chinese companies a low cost opportunity to enter the UK and EU markets. Data from the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) showed that China is ranked 8th among more than fifty countries and regions that have investment in UK. UKTI has helped over 400 Chinese companies enter these markets.

Wood said: "In our new growth strategy, we want not just more Chinese companies in Britain, and British companies in China."

The Expo displays the strength of the UK-China partnership. Wood said: "Cooperation, whether in business, education or culture, demonstrates the commitment of the UK to China and the importance of our continued collaboration on important global topics such as bio-diversity and climate change."

(China.org.cn by Wang Ke February 4, 2010)