World Expo Shanghai organizers today announced the start of construction on the Expo Center, the first permanent pavilion in the Expo site.

World Expo Shanghai organizers today announces the start of construction on the Expo Center, the first permanent pavilion in the Expo site. The picture shows the layout of the Expo Center.

World Expo Shanghai organizers today announces the start of construction on the Expo Center, the first permanent pavilion in the Expo site. The picture shows the layout of the Expo Center.

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng who also the first deputy director the Executive Committee of the Expo made the announcement.

The Expo Center is on the Pudong side of the Huangpu River and will be in the core area of the Expo Site, located near the China Pavilion, theme pavilions and the performance center.

It will be used as an information and operating center as well as the venue for grand ceremonies, conventions and forums during the six-month event.

After the World Expo, the building, along with the other permanent pavilions, will serve as a multi-functional area mainly targeted at providing services such as conventions, exhibitions and cultural events.

Most of the pavilions built by the participants are temporary. Only few of outstanding quality and design will be persevered.

As it is a permanent pavilion, the environmental protection building will be made from "green, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly" materials, said an official with the project's designer, East China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co Ltd.

Dai Liu, chairman of the Expo Group, said the Expo Center would become a "truly" green construction by widely using new energy, new technology and new material and optimized ecological arrangement plans.

The Expo Center will be completed before 2010.

(Shanghai Daily June 7, 2007)