Expo 2010 lacking qualified personnel

With the World Exposition 2010 just five years away, Shanghai still faces a critical shortage of qualified professionals to plan and run the operation.

This revelation came from information released by an international symposium - the International Conference on Human Resources Strategy for World Expo 2010 - held on Friday in the city.

Dai Liu, deputy director-general of the Shanghai World Expo Bureau, said: "The exhibition professionals with appropriate experience, knowledge and ability now available in the city are only one-third of what we need for the Expo."

Many of the current employees in the exhibition business do not possess proper professionalism and ability, according to Professor Zheng Jianyu from the Institution of Tourism, Shanghai Normal University.

"Among the approximate 5,000 employees in the field, only 52 per cent of them have received certain training," said Zheng.

"And there are less than 50 experienced senior project managers and less than 100 all-round personnel in the field.

"Shanghai just opened relevant courses at two universities, Shanghai Normal University and Shanghai Institution of Foreign Trade, last year, and their students won't graduate before 2008."

"The simultaneous interpreters in the city that every international exhibition needs number no more than 10," said Professor Jin Hui, also from Shanghai Normal University.

An analysis done by Bearing Point, a multinational consulting company, says that Shanghai needs at least 2,000 exhibition professionals covering a wide range of fields to run the upcoming Expo.