The German city of Dusseldorf aims to present itself as a first-class international business location at this year's Expo.
The city, which has a population of 600,000, sits comfortably close to the Rhine and benefits from its strategic location in Europe. From May 2 it will present its future-oriented urban policies in Shanghai at a 400 sq m space at the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA), itself a new addition to the 151-year-old World Expo.
"Our (exhibition), 'The City Experience', clearly reflects what our city is about," said Dusseldorf Mayor Dirk Elbers. "Dusseldorf is the epitome of experiencing and creating urban life.This is why people feel good in our city and this is what we want to show at Expo."
Dusseldorf is proud of its status as a premium economic location for companies doing business in Germany, while still being able to offer the second-best quality of life in the country, Elbers said.
Thousands of companies, many of them non-German, are located in Dusseldorf due largely to the virtuosity with which the city constantly redefines its economic performance.
Dusseldorf's location in the middle of Germany's largest market, the Rhine-Ruhr area, which has 11.5-million inhabitants, makes it an ideal business base. About 30 percent of the population of the European Union, representing half of the bloc's purchasing power, live within a 500-kilometer range of the city.
Five of Germany's largest enterprises are headquartered in Dusseldorf, which also serves as the country's advertising and fashion hub. It has Europe's third-largest inland port and Germany's third-largest international airport.
A total of 280 Chinese enterprises have chosen Dusseldorf as their business base in Europe, with 23 of them moving there in the past 12 months. During Expo 2010, the city will offer new incentives in terms of urban development. It will also suggest ways of dealing with China's accelerating rate of urbanization.
Helping shape the future and reinventing the limits of urban coexistence are daily challenges for Dusseldorf. Various cultures inhabit the city and shape its development, making integration a key component of its urban-engineering policy.
