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Related story: Shanghai Expo to feature pavilion for people with disabilities

Date/Time: 11:00 a.m., Saturday, September 13

Venue: Main Press Conference (MPC)

Zhang Jinlin

Good morning, dear friends from the media. The press conference is on the Life Sunshine Home-World Expo Shanghai China 2010. We have invited today Mr. Wang Zhijun, member of the Advisers Group for the Life and Sunshine House; Mr. Chen Xianjin, deputy director of the Coordination Bureau for the World Expo Shanghai 2010; Mr. Cao Ziping, vice chairman of Shanghai Disabled Person’s Federation; Mr. Liang Benyuan, president of the Huaxia Cultural Group under the China Disabled Person’s Federation; also with us today is Mr. Li Maowei, deputy director of the Office of Leadership Group for the Life and Sunshine House; and Mr. Wang Tao, deputy director of the Communications and Culture Department of China Disabled Person’s Federation (CDPF). First, we would like to show you a video on the Shanghai Expo 2010 China- Grand opportunity for China.

(Video played)

Zhang Jinlin

Now let’s invite Wang Zhijun to say a few words about the World Expo.

Wang Zhijun

Dear friends and distinguished guests, good morning. Today we are holding a press conference on the life and sunshine home of the disabled at the 2010 Shanghai Expo at MPC. First, on behalf of the CDPF, I would like to extend our warm welcome to our friends in the media. Also I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Mr. Chen Xianjin, deputy director of the coordination bureau for the World Expo Shanghai 2010 to come to Beijing to brief us on the Shanghai Expo. The 2008 Paralympic Games is a continuation of the Olympic spirit and a eulogy for life. The exciting moments in the field of play of Paralympic Games have showed the strive of the disabled for the better and we are deeply moved by the great forces of the sincere love and care among the people.

In 2007, the Shanghai Special Olympic Games, President of People’s Republic of China, Mr. Hu Jintao pointed out that the sunshine of love and care should be on the soul of each disabled person. It was the first Expo of Shanghai Expo that there will be comprehensive pavilion for the persons with disabilities just like the Paralympic Games and Special Olympic Games. That pavilion is to reflect the dignity and the value of the disabled persons, calling for humanitarianism to promote the undertakings for the persons with disability. As a gathering for the persons with disability, the Paralympic Games is a stage for persons with disability. And those people would strive for their dreams. To have this press conference on the Shanghai Expo would continue the spirit of the Paralympic Games. The theme of the 2010 Shanghai Expo is ‘Better City Better Life’. Centered around the theme, the ‘Life Sunshine Home’ from the perspective of equality participation and sharing, will fully demonstrate the changes for the persons with disability in China ever since the beginning of reform and opening up policy. It will present the best practices and facilities for serving the persons with disability. Efforts will be made to implement the scientific concept and focus on people, further improve the environment in the cities.

Efforts will be made to solve the most urgent issue facing by the persons with disabilities such as education, rehabilitation and employment. Just like abled bodies, every one of disabled has a beautiful dream. I sincerely hope that the Shanghai 2010 Expo will enable the persons with disabilities to feel they are the masters in their life. They will have the enthusiasm and honor to participate in social life. And I also hope that everyone to the Shanghai Expo would pay more attention to the status the persons with disabilities, in participating in social life. They would pay more attention on undertaking persons with disabilities to build a more harmonious environment between cities and society, and the relationship between disabilities and abled people.

Today, our purpose is to give you a briefing on the preparation for the Life & Sunshine Home of Shanghai Expo for three hopes. One is that we hope our friends from all over the world to this Paralympic Games would spread the message throughout the world. The second is the related international organizations across the world would pay more attention to the pavilion for Shanghai Expo and to the people with disabilities. We would like to give you invitation to the disabled persons around the world to the Shanghai Expo. I would like to give you sincere thanks to our friends from the media.

Zhang Jinlin

Now I would like to give the floor Mr. Chen Xianjin, deputy director of the Coordination Bureau for the World Expo Shanghai 2010.

Chen Xianjin

Dear friends from the media, good morning. It’s my pleasure to be present in this press conference. I would like to thank all of you for the care and support for the preparation of the Shanghai Expo 2010. You have seen the video and I suppose you have the understanding and the nature and theme work for the preparation work for the Shanghai Expo. Now what I would like to do is to give you the briefing on the latest development in preparing for that Expo. The support from the Central Committee of the Communist Party and from the support of the State Council and related organization in Shanghai, the preparation work is going on quite smoothly. First, the construction for the parks has already been in full process. Second, the exhibition work has also going on well. We have very good feedback from the exhibitor in terms of international participation.

As of September 10 this year, all together 221 countries and international organizations have confirmed their participation on the beginning. We hope that 200 countries and international organizations will participate in the Expo. Now the target has been accomplished. 90 countries and international organizations have signed the participation contract and also more than 10 countries have made known their plans for their own pavilion. As for the domestic preparations or exhibition ever since the beginning of last year, all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, they have set up the working teams for the World Expo. The 29 cities and provinces as well as Hong Kong and Macau have already signed their respective agreement for the Expo. In terms of the participation by the city, the construction for the city best practices on has already begun. This year, the International Selection Committee for the City Best Practice Zone has already 15 architectural cases and 110 city cases. Those cases selected are from 5 continents. In terms of the business participation, Shanghai Expo has planned for 16 pavilions for businesses and 13 businesses have already confirmed their participation. The innovative project in the Shanghai Expo, we have the online exhibition. I would like to give you more information about the Life and Sunshine Home.

Thirdly, the service for the exhibitors for the Shanghai Expo will be highly efficient in order to provide high quality service for the exhibitors. We have already built a one stop shopping service hall and business service room on the 28th of August. That one stop shopping hall is becoming operational. The Shanghai Custom Service, the Entry and Exit Quarantine Inspection Bureau, the Fire Bureau and related organization have already moved into that service hall. We have solicited altogether 300 good service providers to the Shanghai Expo. They cover construction, decoration, exhibition, logistics and human resources.

Fourth is that we are now sparing efforts in implementing the plans. We are going to strengthen our communication and coordination with the exhibitors. We are now making detailed preparation for the activity and the forum for the Shanghai Expo.

Fifth, now efforts are being made in working on, designing on the opening and closing ceremony as well as the China Pavilion day plan. We are approaching the domestic international related organization such as performance organization. We are now soliciting the performances and the arrangement of the session for more than 10,000 artistic performance sessions. In terms of the preparation for the forums, we have prepared for the summit forums, theme forums and special forums and also for the preparation for the operation of them. We have developed the initial plans for food safety metrological service, environmental protection, system clearance, and information service; and also we are developing the plans for the transportation, volunteers and the service for the exhibitors.

Sixth, the marketing work has been going on quite effectively. The ticketing work is also in good order. Now we have already signed 12 partners, 7 senior sponsors and 5 project sponsors and the sale of the product in terms of the emblem and the mascot have already begun. In terms of ticketing we have developed the mass ticketing plan. We have completed the design for the tickets. We have selected the ticket producing organization. We plan to start the group ticket sales at the end of this month.

Seventh, the communication and the publicity work has been going on quite well. Efforts have been made to come out media publicity and international exchanges. We have made the opportunities of various activities such as the China week in other parts of the world and Shanghai week to promote the Shangahi Expo. Efforts are being made in Shanghai to promote the 600 days in preparation for Shanghai Expo. We are going to continue to do the tours for the Shanghai Expo and do the activity of promotion on campuses and communities. The 2010 Shanghai Expo will provide us a platform to showcase the development of the undertaking for the disabled. My organization plays a lot of attention to the preparation of the comprehensive pavilion for the disabled.

On July 3, Mr. Hong Hao, the director of the Shangahi Expo Bureau and the Mr. Lu Shiming, deputy director general of China CDPF, signed the exhibition agreement for Shanghai Expo in which there is provisions for the Life Sunshine Pavilion within the Shanghai Expo Park. We are going to make our utmost efforts to provide every possible convenience for the pavilion. We expect that the Life Sunshine Pavilion will have a wonderful performance during the shanghai Expo.

Dear friends, in a few days, the Beijing Paralympic Games is coming to an end. More attention from the people in China and other parts of the world will be shifted to the Shanghai Expo. We should not only learn the best practices from the other parts of the world in hosting the Shanghai Expo but we are also going to learn from the successful experience of holding the successful Olympic and Paralympic Games. We have every confidence that under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and also under the leadership of State Council, with the support of the whole country, we will present to the whole world a wonderful World Expo together with Bureau of International Expositions (BIE). Thank you very much for your attention.

Zhang Jinlin

I would invite Vice Chairman of the CDPF as well as the Deputy Director for the leading group of the preparation of the Life and Sunshine Home, Mr. Cao Ziping to speak.

Cao Ziping

Friends from the media I would like to brief you on the preparation of the Life and Sunshine Home for the World Expo in Shanghai. It is the first time ever for the World Expo to set up this Life Sunshine pavilion and it has the full support and endorsement from BIE.

This pavilion is going to be organized by CDPF and hosted by the Shanghai Disabled Persons Federation. The pavilion is going to cover 810 square meters. This pavilion is expected to leave an impression of being very successful, magnificent and memorable in the minds of the public. This will definitely become one of the highlight for the 2010 Shanghai Expo. In 1996, the UN organization announced its declaration on Istanbul Declaration.

The Istanbul Declaration issued by the Human Settlements Organization of the United Nations Conference reaffirms, “Our cities must be places where human beings lead fulfilling lives in dignity, good health, safety, happiness, and hope.” It is the crystallization of human wisdom and civilization, the emergence of which has been a powerful impetus for the evolvement and promoting the perfection of human society. It has played a positive role in the development and advancement of politics, culture, science and technology, and social life of human beings. The theme of Expo is ‘Better City and Better Life’. We will interpret the philosophy of harmonious city. People with disabilities are an important group in cities among its population. So we have named this comprehensive pavilion for people with disability as the Life and Sunshine House.

The Life and Sunshine Pavilion has chosen four generally accepted concepts of ‘Dignity’, ‘Contribution’, ‘Care’ and ‘Future’ as its basic display factors. Its purpose is to develop the theme of “Equality, Participation, Share”, the ultimate goal of people with disabilities, to stress the objective of “lighting every soul of people with disabilities with the sunshine of care”, to help society know better about the competence of people with disabilities and contribution they have made, to demonstrate the concept of ‘harmonious city’ from the perspective of people with disabilities, and to fully embody the theme of “Better City, Better Life”, to increase the awareness of the contributions made by the people with disability.

The theme of the Life Sunshine Pavilion of the World Expo Shanghai China 2010 will be developed around four components: dignity of life, ‘valuable contributions, sunshine of care and beautiful future so as to demonstrate the status of the person with disability and to show the spirit of self striving for the fulfillment of the person with disability and to demonstrate the latest development taken world wide for the persons with disability. The first one is the dignity of life. The disabilities are the by-product of the development of the human beings, something valuable in the course of human development but it is also a refection of the diversity and enrichment of people’s life.

Everybody including the person with disability has the right to pursue the life and realize their value in life. It is really a very important aspect of the city development to realize the contribution made by the persons with disability. The spirit of striving for excellence is one of the most valuable spirits for human beings, because by which we can see the power of perseverance of human being, even in face of natural disaster. I think we have a better understanding of the outstanding contributions made by the persons with disability.

The sunshine of care to light the soul everyone with disability with the sunshine of care, I quote this remarks made by our general secretary Mr. Hu Jintao so for this purpose, the Chinese government is making every effort to help persons with disability. Solve problems relating to environmental protection to meet the ever growing need as well as the spiritual need for the beautiful future. As Mr. Deng Xiaoping said to the former United States President Mr. Carter, we do everything possible to improve the service to people with disability and the modern conditions of the science technology, city should provide a better life for the persons with disability. Especially with the increasing advancement of science and technology, the city should be able to provide better and more services by providing accessible infrastructure environment.

By the preparation for the comprehensive pavilions for the handicapped persons, the leading group has been set up for this purpose. Also, on July the 3rd, CDPF and Shanghai World Expo Bureau have signed an agreement. Chairman of China’s Disabled Persons Federation, Mr. Deng Pufang and Shanghai government officials also attended the ceremony. Also on August 20th, display of the logo has been put on the website, as well as the Shanghai Disabled Federation website. So far, over 20 companies have expressed interest for that.

Lastly, I would like to tell you all the products displayed on the pavilion will be permanently kept there on display. Thank you.

Zhang Jinlin

Now the floor is open for questions.

Parity Democrat, Westminster

Just as we are looking forward two years to the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, may I express hope that your Life Sunshine Home will also look forward two years to the centennial of the presidency of that great China statesman Sun Zhongshan, who tried so hard both to enfranchise the rural population and stop foot binding of Chinese women, without which, Chinese athletes would only won half your medals. And in paying attention to the accessibility needs, highlight the great contribution which disabled women and rural people can bring to Chinese society, such as that already made by the distinguished wheelchair bound painter and my friend in Liaoning.

Wang Zhijun

Thank you very much for what you have said. The theme of the World Expo in Shanghai is ‘Better City Better Life, it is not that we do not pay attention to the issue concerning rural areas. We know that women represent disadvantaged groups. The women with disabilities, they are facing more difficulties, in Chinese rural areas which are developing slower than the rest of the countries. The persons with disabilities in the rural areas are facing more difficulties. My organization, that is the CDPF, would pay more attention to the improvement of their status for those people. I don’t believe this runs against to the theme of the 2010 Shanghai Expo. And also, the development of cities would play a kind of demonstration role for the rural areas. So I believe the Shanghai Expo will enable better cities to emerge in China, and will improve the life of rural people in China. Thank you very much.

ABC

Good morning, a question for Mr. Wang. In regards to the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games this morning, the Iranian men’s basketball team did not take the court against the USA. Has any explanation been offered to BOCOG as to why this happened?

Zhang Jinlin

I would like to take the question. BOCOG has received from the International Wheelchair Basketball Association and also the IPC some information because the Iranian team is not satisfied with the result with the draw for the basketball match. They decided to withdraw from the match. We have disclosed this information to the public as well as to the parties concerned.

ABC

In response to the same issue, Iran against the America, in the Paralympic Games, this is a sports event without politics. But this appears to be a political statement from Iran. Can you comment on this?

Zhang Jinlin

As for the Iranian statement, we have not got the information on the statement made by Iran. I have already told you the information I have. Thank you. If there is no more questions, I would like to end today’s press conference. On September 15, at 11 a.m., we are going to hold a press conference on the operation of the Beijing Paralympic Village. Thank you.

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