Pavilion Director Mr. Hayakawa talks about how Liverpool, a sister city of Shanghai, seized the opportunity presented by the Expo to invest in strengthening the ties between the two cities and “further engage with the Chinese market” in building a pavilion where visitors can experience Liverpool as a city with more to offer than simply soccer and The Beatles. For Liverpool and Shanghai, the Expo is a “fantastic platform to build on,” and he anticipates “many benefits to come” from its successful participation.

How did you come to be involved in the Swiss participation at Expo Shanghai?

I've been working on this project now for a long time – eight years, since 2002. I was already involved in this project in Aichi [Expo 2005] and in Zaragoza [Expo 2008]. I quit in 2004 for a year and I came back as I wanted to be a part of this wonderful adventure in China.

Dotée du statut de « ville jumelle » de Shanghai depuis 2008 et avec une collaboration qui date de plus de 20 ans, la région Rhône-Alpes profite de l’occasion donnée par l’Expo 2010 pour se positionner par rapport à la concurrence mondiale, notamment au niveau de la haute technologie et les énergies nouvelles, explique M. Jean Maurice Hebrard, Représentant Général d’ERAI à Shanghai. Dans cette interview, M. Hebrard nous donne de la région Rhône-Alpes une image dynamique, accueillante et à la pointe de la technologie, qui a créé un pavillon « fait pour le business » dans une Chine qui est aujourd’hui « positionnée de façon extrêmement importante »

The Moon Boat, as the Saudi Pavilion is known, symbolizes the exchange and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China, which dates back 1000 years ago. Like a ship connecting the two countries back in the days of the Silk Road, the Moon Boat has “travelled” all the way from Saudi Arabia, docking in Shanghai on the Huangpu River, with the message, “We are coming with goodwill and friendship,” says Commissioner General Al-Shaikh.

The theme of the UN Pavilion is "One Earth, One UN." What is the concept behind it?

The theme of the UN Pavilion is also an abstract of the theme of the Expo, "Better City, Better Life." What better life is all about is ultimately the happiness of the people, the prosperity, the dignity, and the freedom. What the United Nations stands for are precisely these principles. What we wanted to demonstrate is that there is a purpose in the UN as a whole and that this diversity does address certain physical challenges, world issues, and how people can live better lives and how we can construct better cities – whether they have education, human rights, peace, security, and economic development. But how do we look at this in terms of the holistic eventuality? Because we live on one planet – there's not another planet. All that we want to do has to be related to that important issue of having sustainable, long-term happiness that is transferred from generation to generation. When I say better life, it's not just focusing on environmental issues but the totality of human interactions. So our theme is the result of trying to address this diversity of "better city, better life" and of methods, as they relate to what you see when you enter our pavilion, the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals are the human goals that have been set for the United Nations, and from that base, we can look at how we address this issue of how to create better cities, better lives.