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All shoulders to the pavilion wheel
By David Maguire |
April 19, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Frank Lavin has been on board as chairman of the steering committee of the US pavilion for Shanghai Expo 2010 for a little more than three weeks. In less than two weeks the 12-month countdown to the start of the event will begin.
As yet, there is no firm indication that American businesses, either in China or the United States, have raised enough finance to fund the country's presence with a pavilion at Expo.
But the pressure is on from Washington. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has written to the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai expressing her "strong support" for a US Expo pavilion and urging the US business community to support it.
She emphasized the importance of participation, saying it was "crucial for the United States to be present" with other nations "in this major global event."
"The US presence at the Expo will showcase American business, culture and values in China's most dynamic city and foster an even stronger friendship between the American and Chinese peoples."
She said it "offers an unprecedented opportunity for US companies and organizations to hoist their flags in one of the most important centers of world commerce and cultural exchange."
The State Department has sanctioned the private, non-profit organization Shanghai 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion to raise funds to design and build a pavilion, and Clinton urged support for their activities which have included briefing AmCham members in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. AmCham Shanghai has held events for members to learn about Expo opportunities. And there is an air of confidence in statements issued by those involved with the fundraising.
"The US pavilion, which will form a key element of one of the most spectacular events in world history, will showcase American ingenuity, innovation and its 'can do' spirit," said Ellen Eliasoph, a co-chair of the pavilion organization, managing partner of a Beijing-based US law firm and former managing director of Warner Bros Pictures China.
Lavin (pictured below) is working with Eliasoph on fast-tracking the cause.
If things are getting tight, Lavin isn't saying so and seems to be taking it all in his stride. He's been around Asia and international politics long enough to know what not to say until you can.
He is a former US Ambassador to Singapore (2001-2005) and under-secretary for international trade at the US Department of Commerce. He served as the lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was the department's senior policy officer responsible for commercial policy, export promotion and trade negotiations across the globe.
Now based in Hong Kong, where he works as a corporate consultant, his new role as steering committee chairman brings him to Shanghai at least once a month.
"We're feeling pretty good about things but we had a big hurdle that froze us for several months, not surprisingly the last three months of the Bush Administration," he said this week about an apparent hiatus in progress toward achieving the US pavilion's US$60 million target.
"And also during the US presidential transition, we had a somewhat similar response from the Obama administration saying in its early stages 'we can't focus on it right now.'
"We had a meeting three weeks ago in Washington where Hillary Clinton said 'we're 100 percent committed' and she asked her deputy to take care of it. Since then the State Department has been very good about getting things moving."
He said that getting some companies committed to such events is an "easy sell, but for others, they don't get it."
"The discussion cycle can be as long as six months," he said. "The guys in China say 'we get it' but it has to go back to Atlanta or wherever home office is for approval." But Lavin believes the tide is turning.
"We're starting to see positive sign ups and in a month or two we will have a lot more good news to announce," he said. "We're on track with design and architecture and where we want to be right now.
"At one point, April 15 was a deadline of sorts but the authorities told us that it was not a hard deadline. We've had a series of deadlines but the important one is May 1 next year."
The difficulty is partly that the United States outlawed in 1991 the use of federal government funds for international expos. While Lavin is comfortable with the policy - "if there's any country where we need to be it's China ... it's an exception to the rule" - he said such events require a lot of corporate consciousness raising in the absence of government.
Lavin and his colleagues were taking the cause to US corporate leadership in China this week at a luncheon in Beijing. Supporting them were representatives from the US Ministry of Commerce and the Expo authority.
"We have an enormous amount of contributions under discussion and there's no fair way of measuring it yet as an outcome," he said.
As he told a Hong Kong audience in February: "If we continue on the same path we will be successful. So I am confident. I think the Shanghai Exposition will be the most successful exposition in history."
As yet, there is no firm indication that American businesses, either in China or the United States, have raised enough finance to fund the country's presence with a pavilion at Expo.
But the pressure is on from Washington. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has written to the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai expressing her "strong support" for a US Expo pavilion and urging the US business community to support it.
She emphasized the importance of participation, saying it was "crucial for the United States to be present" with other nations "in this major global event."
"The US presence at the Expo will showcase American business, culture and values in China's most dynamic city and foster an even stronger friendship between the American and Chinese peoples."
She said it "offers an unprecedented opportunity for US companies and organizations to hoist their flags in one of the most important centers of world commerce and cultural exchange."
The State Department has sanctioned the private, non-profit organization Shanghai 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion to raise funds to design and build a pavilion, and Clinton urged support for their activities which have included briefing AmCham members in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. AmCham Shanghai has held events for members to learn about Expo opportunities. And there is an air of confidence in statements issued by those involved with the fundraising.
"The US pavilion, which will form a key element of one of the most spectacular events in world history, will showcase American ingenuity, innovation and its 'can do' spirit," said Ellen Eliasoph, a co-chair of the pavilion organization, managing partner of a Beijing-based US law firm and former managing director of Warner Bros Pictures China.
Lavin (pictured below) is working with Eliasoph on fast-tracking the cause.
If things are getting tight, Lavin isn't saying so and seems to be taking it all in his stride. He's been around Asia and international politics long enough to know what not to say until you can.
He is a former US Ambassador to Singapore (2001-2005) and under-secretary for international trade at the US Department of Commerce. He served as the lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was the department's senior policy officer responsible for commercial policy, export promotion and trade negotiations across the globe.
Now based in Hong Kong, where he works as a corporate consultant, his new role as steering committee chairman brings him to Shanghai at least once a month.
"We're feeling pretty good about things but we had a big hurdle that froze us for several months, not surprisingly the last three months of the Bush Administration," he said this week about an apparent hiatus in progress toward achieving the US pavilion's US$60 million target.
"And also during the US presidential transition, we had a somewhat similar response from the Obama administration saying in its early stages 'we can't focus on it right now.'
"We had a meeting three weeks ago in Washington where Hillary Clinton said 'we're 100 percent committed' and she asked her deputy to take care of it. Since then the State Department has been very good about getting things moving."
He said that getting some companies committed to such events is an "easy sell, but for others, they don't get it."
"The discussion cycle can be as long as six months," he said. "The guys in China say 'we get it' but it has to go back to Atlanta or wherever home office is for approval." But Lavin believes the tide is turning.
"We're starting to see positive sign ups and in a month or two we will have a lot more good news to announce," he said. "We're on track with design and architecture and where we want to be right now.
"At one point, April 15 was a deadline of sorts but the authorities told us that it was not a hard deadline. We've had a series of deadlines but the important one is May 1 next year."
The difficulty is partly that the United States outlawed in 1991 the use of federal government funds for international expos. While Lavin is comfortable with the policy - "if there's any country where we need to be it's China ... it's an exception to the rule" - he said such events require a lot of corporate consciousness raising in the absence of government.
Lavin and his colleagues were taking the cause to US corporate leadership in China this week at a luncheon in Beijing. Supporting them were representatives from the US Ministry of Commerce and the Expo authority.
"We have an enormous amount of contributions under discussion and there's no fair way of measuring it yet as an outcome," he said.
As he told a Hong Kong audience in February: "If we continue on the same path we will be successful. So I am confident. I think the Shanghai Exposition will be the most successful exposition in history."
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