Zhou Hanmin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination

Huang Jianzhi, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination

scene of the license-issue ceremony

scene of the license-issue ceremony

SHANGHAI'S industry and commerce authority today granted permission to six World Expo 2010 participants to do business in their pavilions during the Expo.

The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce issued business licenses to Luxemburg, the Netherlands, the World Meteorological Organization, International Development Information Network Association and two Urban Best Practices Area participants including China's Macau and France's Rhones-Alpes Region in the Participants' Service Hall in the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

The Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision and the Shanghai administration of Taxation also issued certificates to the participants for their imports, Customs clearance and draw back taxes in the country.

World Expo participants can use less than 20 percent of their pavilions for commercial use. This includes setting up restaurants or selling souvenirs, according to stipulations of the International Expositions Bureau.

Besides, participants building pavilions should bring construction materials to the site, the BIE has said.

World Expo participants can apply and get all the necessary licenses in the service hall, Huang Jianzhi, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, has said.

The Shanghai World Expo organizer has representatives from customs, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine administration, taxation, quality and technical supervision, health and industrial and commercial monitoring authorities in the service hall to serve Expo participants.

The hall opened on September 8. It offers services from 9:30am to 5pm from Monday to Friday.

The licenses and certificates were really “in time,” said Pierre Ferring, Luxembourg's consul general in Shanghai.

Luxembourg planned to build a restaurant serving both Luxembourg and Chinese food in its pavilion. Thus the country needed licenses to recruit Chinese chefs to cook Chinese cuisine, Ferring told Shanghai Daily. He said the country was discussing other commercial activities.

Luxemburg will build a pavilion called “Small is beautiful” with an exhibition area of about 1,300 square meters.

The organizer and local administrations have offered reasonable services to the Expo participants, Ferring said.