Tue, Oct 16, 2001 page21

• Shanghai puts on best face for economic meet

  PRIMED AND READY After preparing for this week's APEC forum for more than a year, Chinese officials are sure that the conference will be safe and successful

  • BLOOMBERG
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  Zhang Dan Dan, HSBC Holdings Plc's public relations manager in Shanghai, didn't get away or catch up with friends during last week's National Day holidays. She spent much of the week-long break with the city's police.

  Zhang and executives of other companies in Shanghai's financial hub have spent days getting security clearance for employees so they can go to work when US President George W. Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and 18 other heads of Pacific Rim nations arrive for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this week.

  

  A policeman stops people from entering the International Convention Center in Shanghai yesterday. Officials from 21 economies from around the Pacific Rim started talks amid tight security to lay the groundwork for a summit of their leaders later in the week.

  PHOTO: AFP

  "We have to keep the bank running," she said of HSBC's China headquarters, which moved to Shanghai from Hong Kong last year. It's located near the APEC venue in Pudong, on the east bank of the Huangpu River, which will be closed to unauthorized traffic and pedestrians for five days beginning tomorrow.

  Security against terrorists is both on the agenda of the APEC summit and on the minds of Chinese officials. About 100,000 police and army personnel are being deployed to guard an estimated 10,000 APEC delegates and journalists, especially the 21 political leaders who control nearly half the world's economy.

  For China, it's a dilemma: balancing the need for security against a desire to showcase the world's fastest-growing economy at a time the US, Japan and Europe face their biggest slump in years.

  The tight security net may turn parts of Shanghai into a ghost town.

  The city has spent 300 million yuan (US$36 million) to host the event, the Shanghai Daily quoted Mayor Xu Kuangdi as saying.

  "Shanghai has been preparing this event for more than a year," said He Yong, an employee at a trading company near the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

  "The government will lose face if anything goes wrong."

  Officials are leaving nothing to chance. Police are requiring all office employees in the cordoned-off APEC zone -- including the Shanghai Stock Exchange -- to wear security passes to enter the financial district.

  Still, the Shanghai bourse will trade through the APEC summit, and China's central bank is asking banks like Bank of China, HSBC and Citibank to stay open.

  For Shanghai's 13 million residents, the five days beginning tomorrow will be best spent either at home or out of town. To reduce the number of people on the streets, the city government has declared public holidays, beginning tomorrow, to close schools, offices and businesses.

  All roads leading to the APEC conference center will be blocked to traffic, except for designated vehicles carrying APEC delegates.

  The city's two busiest shopping streets, across the river from the APEC site, Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road, will also be closed to traffic.

  "Shanghai will be a ghost town if all the shopping centers shut. Where will people go?" said Maggie Xu, a customer shopping at the Isetan department store.

  Subway lines that connect both sides of the city across the Huangpu will skip the station in Lujiazui near the APEC site.

  Shanghai's financial heartland will be particularly hurt. Mere paddy fields five years ago, the eastern bank of the Huangpu River is home to Shanghai's bourse, major foreign and domestic banks and other multinational offices. The APEC meeting will be held in their midst.

  APEC was formed in 1989. Its 21 members are: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

  High-level meetings, including one between Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, will be held on the sidelines of APEC. This is Bush's first trip to Asia and Chinese security is on tenterhooks.

  "It's a different set of circumstances this year. Security is top priority," said Mark De Cocinis, manager of the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which will host Bush and his delegation. "This conference is very important for China. President Jiang has said he wants this to be the best APEC ever."

  Hotels like the Portman, and the Grand Hyatt in the 88-story Jinmao Tower, will be subject to the most rigorous security. Starting this week, the Hyatt's guests, including Toshiba Corp Chairman Taizo Nishimuro, will have to walk through metal detectors and have their luggage X-rayed in the lobby of China's tallest building.

  "There will be hell to pay if there are any security lapses," said He. He plans to skip town with his family during APEC.

  Not everybody is crying foul. Hotels that typically are 70 percent occupied have been booked out, after organizers reserved 17,000 rooms in 14 five-star hotels.

  All of the Portman's 564 rooms have been reserved for the US delegation, while all 500 rooms of the Okura Garden Hotel have been booked for the Japanese team. Regular guests who aren't registered for APEC will be firmly but politely turned away, Portman and Okura staff said.

  Prices are skyrocketing. Hotels are raising rates for everything from rooms to airport transportation fares. The JC Mandarin, across the street from the Portman, is charging guests 75 percent more than usual for rooms, at US$230 a night.

  Some businesses are hoping for a sales boost from the meeting. A men's boutique near Huaihai Road is selling "APEC suits" for 600 yuan. China Unicom Ltd, the country's second-largest cellular phone operator, is lending APEC delegates 1,000 new phones that can transmit data seven times faster than conventional phones. General Motors Corp will supply nearly 800 Buick sedans to ferry APEC delegates around town.

  Shanghai has pulled out all stops to present the city's best face. In a fit of industriousness that mirrors the Chinese economy, expected to grow 7.5 percent this year, 132 new public toilets and 2,000 directional signs have been erected.

  Trees lining the city's main streets are lit by neon at night, adding an eerie green tone to the wilting autumn leaves. Neon tubes have been planted inside the foliage, spelling out "APEC" and "Peace."

  Beggars have been kicked off the streets, and 10,000 school children and teenagers mobilized to scrub down bridges, road railings and overhead crossings.

  All over town, people are taking English lessons. A booklet called 100 APEC English Sentences has been standard issue in Shanghai schools since last year. Another booklet has been issued to instruct on manners: It's impolite to spit, curse or jaywalk.

  And China's statistics bureau is expected to release key economic data this week -- before presidents Bush and Jiang meet next Saturday -- that will show China as the world's fastest growing economy in the third quarter.
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