Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai World Expo organizers have put back the deadline for the Urban Best Practices Area because of an overwhelming international response to the exhibition.

Cities intending to take part had originally until today to complete their applications. But now the Bureau of International Exposition has decided to shift the deadline to January 31, 2008.

The Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) will be an extraordinary innovation in the history of world expositions and will create one of the most striking features of the Shanghai World Expo.

Located at Zone E over a 15-hectare area, UBPA will offer a great stage for cities to propose their solutions to the urban issues from different perspectives and through their best practices in different fields.

The UBPA will be both an exhibition area and an exhibit itself and it will constitute the largest Thematic Pavilion in Shanghai Expo 2010.

Some 30 examples will be selected giving visitors fresh ideas about how to better their lives and cities.

In May, Expo organizers began to ask cities around the world who wanted to take part in the UBPA and so far, 13 cities, including Liverpool in Britain, Madrid in Spain, Sao Paulo in Brazil and Zurich in Switzerland, have officially submitted entries.

Shanghai has also already prepared several cases for the exhibition, said Zhou Hanmin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

At present 58 cities have said they want to enter and 26 have actually begun negotiating details with the organizers, said Zhou.

The selection committee, consisting of 20 members from international organizations such as the UN Environmental Program, UNESCO and the World Bank, was scheduled to review the proposals between September and November.

UNESCO has recommended more than 20 cases to the selecting committee, said Zhou, who is also one of the judges.