The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, to be held from May 1 to Oct. 31, will have an estimated budget of 28.6 billion yuan (3.7 billion U.S. dollars), Zhu Yonglei, deputy head of the coordination bureau for the 2010 World Expo, said on Tuesday.

The budget will be covered by government investment and money raised on markets, Zhu said.

The total includes 18 billion yuan (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) for infrastructure development, which will come from government investment and bond issues, and 10.6 billion yuan (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) for operation, which will come from ticket sales, corporate investment and sales of franchised products.

The 2010 World Expo park will cover a total area of 5.28 square kilometers, with a total floor space of two million square meters.

To build the park, the State Development and Reform Commission has approved bond issues valued at eight billion yuan (1.04 billion U.S. dollars). Two batches of the bonds, valued at 5.5 billion yuan (714.3 million U.S. dollars) in total, have been issued. The third batch will be issued in the second half of this year, Zhu said.

Wang Jinzhen, deputy head of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and member of the organizing committee for the 2010 World Expo, said on Tuesday that by March 12, 2007, 105 countries and 15 international organizations had confirmed their participation in the Expo.

The organizing Committee forecast that more than 200 countries and international organizations will attend the 184-day event, more than the 120 countries that attended the 2005 World Expo in Japan.

Source: Xinhua