An official from the Shanghai World Expo Bureau said on Friday that the city still faces a critical shortage of qualified professionals to plan and run the 2010 World Exposition.

The information was released by the International Conference on Human Resources Strategy for the 2010 World Expo, days before a National People's Congress (NPC) deputy urged Beijing to step up training of management professionals for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Dai Liu, deputy director-general of the Shanghai World Expo Bureau, said: "The number of exhibition professionals with appropriate experience, knowledge and ability now available in the city are only one-third of what we need."

Many of those currently working in the exhibition business do not possess proper professionalism and ability, according to Professor Zheng Jianyu from the Institute of Tourism at Shanghai Normal University.

"Among the approximate 5,000 employees in the field, only 52 percent of them have received adequate training," said Zheng. "And there are less than 50 experienced senior project managers and less than 100 general personnel in the field.

"Shanghai just offered relevant courses at two universities, Shanghai Normal University and the Shanghai Institution of Foreign Trade, last year, and their students won't graduate before 2008," Zheng added.

"The number of simultaneous interpreters in the city available for every international exhibition is under ten," said Professor Jin Hui, also from Shanghai Normal University.

An analysis by Bearing Point, a multinational consulting company, says that Shanghai needs at least 2,000 exhibition professionals covering a wide range of fields to run the upcoming Expo.

In Beijing on Monday, NPC Deputy Ji Baocheng, president of the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, urged the city to increase its training of management professionals for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Ji said the training should target senior management professionals of the organizing committee, athletes, coaches and referees, volunteers, security guards and service workers, as well as people in the street.

(China Daily Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2005)