With the growing economic crisis, the diminishing attraction of Shanghai Expo to American businesses has increased the difficulty of raising funds for the event's US national pavilion project.

A meeting organized by the US Shanghai Consulate and the US Chamber of Commerce was held in Shanghai on February 10, 2009 to provide a news update on the US national pavilion. USAP and a number of US business representatives in China attended the meeting. USAP hoped to win potential sponsors in the American business community.

Participants at the meeting disclosed that a fund raising sponsor for the national pavilion has not yet been found. USAP planned to raise US$84 million before April 2009 for the US national pavilion. Now the fund has been cut back to US$61 million. And the budget for construction of the pavilion has also been slashed from US$23 million to US$15 million.

Some attending the meeting said that the fund for the national pavilion construction may even be lowered to US$5 million.

According to the Los Angeles Times, other than US$500,000 provided by AnMar International, a US trade company, no formal commitment of funds has yet been made.

One of USAP's leading officials, Ellen Eliosoph, said that they expect to gain commitment from the main sponsor in ten days and to reach an agreement with all crucial sponsors by the end of February.

But the US has not signed up with Expo organizers to attend the Shanghai Expo. The deadline for such a commitment is before April 15 2009, with the result that the US may not even have a formal presence at the Shanghai Expo. It would be essential for the US to have sufficient funds available to undertake the pavilion project. Whether this is feasible ought to be apparent by mid-March.

Since 1992, the US Congress has prohibited government financing of exhibits at world Expos. US participation must be privately funded. The US skipped the expo in Hanover, Germany and the Expo in Zaragosa, Spain and it also withdrew its membership from the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE).

But the Shanghai Expo carries a lot of weight in China-US relations. One of those attending the meeting told the Caijing Magazine that Obama government has shown its support for the building of the US national pavilion. So it is possible that the US government may provide funds to finance the pavilion. Seeking government funding is therefore one of the avenues under discussion.

A non-profit organization, BH&L Group, has also proposed that the USAP should raise small amounts of funding from the US public.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, February 13, 2009)