China.org: Portugal organized the Expo in 1998 in Lisbon. This year, the Expo will be held in Shanghai. How will Portugal take part in this edition of the Expo and how will the country promote itself in the Expo?
Ambassador: We are preparing actively our participation. We will have a pavilion with two thousand square meters, and our national commissioner was already appointed with all his team. We are working physically in the pavilion, both external and internally, so that everything will be ready for the 31st March next year. We have defined some main objectives for our presence in Shanghai: the first is to show Portugal as a modern and innovative European country; the second is to show our achievements in strategic fields, like sustainable energies and energy conservation and efficiency; the third is to promote, in general, the trade and economic cooperation not only between Portugal and China, but also with all the participant countries. We hope that our presence will be a successful one. Our national day will be on the 6th June and we count on the attendance of our Head of State.
Are there any agreements to exchange experiences between the organizers of Lisbon 98 and Shanghai 2010?
Ambassador: Among the agreements which were signed when the Prime Minister paid an official visit to China in 2007 there was a protocol for cooperation between the Expo Shanghai 2010 and our own corporation, the Expo 98, (which is also, in fact, the leading Portuguese department in organizing our pavilion and our presence in this Shanghai fair) concerning the future use of the area in which the exhibition will take place. We had a very good experience of that in 1998, since we prepared very carefully in advance the future uses of the area, taking into account that it could not become a dead space at the end of the exhibition but had to be integrated into the city of Lisbon as an important added value to it. This led the Shanghai Expo to select that Portuguese corporation as a consultant to prepare the future role of the site of the Shanghai Expo.
