Shanghai has made tremendous progress in recent times and has become a cosmopolitan city alongside New York, London and Paris. But one thing is missing - good service. Not that it is bad, but it is, well, uneven.

If you go to a fancy restaurant in, say, Hong Kong, you can expect a certain standard of service. Not in Shanghai.

One afternoon not long ago, the waitress at an up-market restaurant in the posh commercial district along Huaihai Road insisted the lemon tea she served was sugar-free while the customer complained it was too sweet. The lemon juice in the tea contained sugar, but she simply refused to budge.

Long-time residents of Shanghai will tell you the general standard of service is much better than before. But even relatively tolerant customers have horror stories about bad service to tell.

Despite the ranting, they are not trying to nit-pick. Rather, they are concerned that these seemingly minor anomalies could hamper the city's quest to become a world-class financial and cultural centre in this part of the world.

The results of the efforts by the Shanghai municipal government in this respect are obvious. Aside from the many gleaming tall buildings along broad boulevards in the business and commercial districts, the government has invested heavily in improving the environment.

Many visitors from abroad marvel at how green the city is and how clean the streets are. To be sure, Shanghai still has a way to go before it can earn the "garden city" title - but it is getting there.

What impresses visitors, especially those from Hong Kong, is the city's preservation of some of its historic sites and buildings. The vista along the Bund has not really changed much since the 1930s. But there is no shortage of other historic gems hidden in the shadows of the modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers waiting to surprise and delight.

Like many major cities in rapidly developing countries, Shanghai's traffic can be a nightmare during the morning and evening rush hours.

However, the improvement in public transport has made life a lot easier for everyone. Many buses are air-conditioned and the taxi fleet that roams the streets is one of the cleanest in the world. Four subway lines moving a massive number of people around the city are in operation and the government plans to build five more in the future.

Everybody agrees the infrastructure necessary for a truly modern city has largely been put in place. But it is also obvious that mortar and bricks alone do not make a world-class city.

People count. In this respect, the government-initiated "Embrace Civility, Be a Lovely Shanghaiese" campaign does carry a serious undertone. The English name of the campaign was later changed to "Be a Courteous and Considerate Shanghaiese."

Hong Kong people learned the importance of being "lovely" when the city's economy took a beating after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. With the property market in tatters and the manufacturing sector largely hollowed out, Hong Kong people were abruptly shown all that was left to keep the economy going was the service sector.

Hong Kong's transformation from a low-cost manufacturing economy to a service-based economy began in the mid-1980s. But the process was grossly distorted by the stock and property market boom in the early 1990s, when money could easily be made in share or property speculation.

The demand for all kinds of services was so high that few cared about quality. In those days, rudeness was a way of life and being considerate was seen as a sign of weakness on the part of those who were either unwilling or unable to jump onto the speculative bandwagon.

Much has changed since. The Hong Kong government courtesy campaign introduced in 1997 has made business people aware of the need to improve the standard of services.

But market forces have provided the biggest impetus to change. Dwindling demand forced business owners to fight harder for market share by offering a quality service. As for employees, the growing threat of unemployment became the major incentive for courtesy to customers.

Whatever the driving force, Hong Kong's service sector has become a great deal more competitive than it was before 1997.

Such a shift in attitude is obviously needed in Shanghai as the city is preparing for the World Exposition in 2010.

(China Daily 09/27/2005 page4)