Shifting gear

Furthermore, the city's officials and economists are waiting to see if the expo can help transform the city from an economy based on manufacturing to one based on high-value-added services.

As outlined in government reports, one of Shanghai's key tasks until 2012 is to quicken the pace of its economic development, with the service sector at its core.

By 2012, the service industry will be worth over 1.1 trillion yuan and will account for more than 80 percent of the GDP of the city's central areas.

"In addition to giving Shanghai's infrastructure a boost, the expo will lay the foundation for the development of new industries such as tourism and a series of service sectors," said Zhou Hanmin, deputy director of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai Executive Committee.

Xu Wei, a strategist with Sinolink Securities, sees the upcoming expo, together with the city's planned Disneyland, as something that can help address fundamental economic challenges.

According to his research, the city's economy hit a bottleneck in 2000, since which time it has relied on the booming housing market for short-term expansion. 

"The biggest problem facing Shanghai's economy is being able to find a long-term driving force, which the government has proposed to vitalize the service economy," he said.

The city's service sector will be hugely lifted by the expo, which, together with the proposed new Disneyland, will create unprecedented opportunities for growth for Shanghai's service economy, Xu added.