Policemen guard the financial district of Shanghai yesterday, venue of the annual meeting of the Africa Development Bank to be held in the area. China's engagement with Africa has been deepening, with more than 800 companies, most state-owned, operating there. - Reuters

Colin Steer, Associate Editor - Opinion

Shanghai, China:

The communist face of China, which has been subject to makeovers in the past several decades, is now undergoing major reconstructive surgery - literally and figuratively.

From the fashionable stores offering consumer durables to the beauty salons in downtown Shanghai offering inexpensive liposuction and plastic surgery, the message is clear: this ancient but rapidly expanding city is open for business of all types.

The quintessential symbols of western and in particular American private business are in abundance all over the city - Taco Bell, McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, 7-Up and Hagen-Dazs.

Shanghai's skyline is also an impressive scene of construction work on towers going as high as 400 square metres. The neon lights at night are indicative of a much-talked about economic boom taking place in parts of the country.

Government authorities are on a publicity blitz to make the world know that it is indeed open for business.

World Exposition 2010

The work is both for medium-to long-term projects. On the im-mediate horizon is preparation for World Exposition 2010 set for this city, and municipal authorities are clearing vast acreages of old factory space and other buildings - 3.28 square kilometres in fact - to make room for exhibition halls, booths and potentially new businesses.

Using the theme, 'Better City, Better Life', Shanghai's authorities are hoping to welcome more than 150 country participants to the international business exposition.

Jamaica has yet to indicate its participation in the exhibition, but 136 other countries have confirmed, among them Cuba, Dominica, Guyana, Bolivia, Trinidad and Tobago from the Caribbean and Latin America.

Developing countries partici-pating in the exhibition will be entitled to some financial assistance once they have confirmed their intention to be here.

At present more than 200 major construction projects are under way and the preparation is expected to pose major challenges for authorities - in terms of transportation, infra structure development and relocation of populations and businesses.

Yet, for all the expansion, government officials say they are careful to ensure that the economic boom benefits all or as many members of the society as possible.

After all, China still sees itself as a developing country; it has not abandoned its socialist/communist tenets, and downtown Shanghai's boom is by no means a citywide phenomenon for its 20 million population.

Old Shanghai still has many features of 800 years ago. Among them the ancient water villages, where people move about on boats between houses on waterways where women wash pots and pans and dirty mops with equal indifference.

A tour guide told a delegation of Caribbean and Latin American journalists earlier this week that it was only five years ago that the villages were opened to tourists.

Since then, some of the residents have converted or rented out the lower floors of their homes making them souvenir and food shops while continuing to live on the upper floor.

A local communist party official says China is seeking to develop its economy along lines that are best for the Chinese people. They have no intention of following other countries or set models for others.

So, the message for now is to reinforce their intention of creating "a harmonious society".

Official policy

As to criticisms that its people remain largely closed to outside information, the response: 'Nonsense , millions of Chinese are travelling overseas every year, millions are coming here, foreign correspondents are based here, and have access to the people to do whatever interviews they wish, and the Internet and satellite television with foreign programming are available to and being made available to as many people as the economy allows.'

That is the official policy. Time will tell how effective they are in achieving this aim.

colin.steer@gleanerjm.com