U.S. Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo to be completed in early March

SHANGHAI, Jan. 21 -- The construction of the U.S. Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo was expected to conclude in early March, organizers said Wednesday.

Nicholas Winslow, president of the U.S. Pavilion, told Xinhua they had raised 85 percent of the construction costs of 61 million U.S. dollars, which would not at all affect the inside of the building,

The pavilion would be completed in five or six weeks and open in April, Winslow said.

"We are very comfortable about the financing," he said, adding there were a number of sponsors in the pipeline and negotiations with them were under way.

Winslow said the pavilion would have four areas, including a "welcome area," a video tape areas introducing Americans who have made a difference to their communities, a 20-meter-high "cylinder" with media presentation on five very large screens and an area with five buildings illustrating the theme of "embracing challenges."

"The pavilion will not be a trade show. It will be an opportunity for America to showcase itself to the world," he said.

Ordinary American people don't know a lot about Shanghai Expo yet because of the very few media publicity.

However, "I think they are waking up from the stunning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and now they are waking up to the 2010 Expo."

The organizers will hold six forums in the pavilion during the Expo. American local government leaders would come here to share both the successful experience and the "bad and ugly" stories during the urban construction and management in different cities in the United States, Winslow said.

U.S. laws prohibit the government from allocating money directly for the activity. The global economic crisis had made fund-raising for the U.S. pavilion difficult.

Special Report: Expo 2010 Shanghai China