名人谈世博：美好城市离不开个人贡献

我很荣幸能够受瑞士政府之邀，担任中国2010年上海世博会瑞士馆的总代表，亲身参与这场盛会。“总代表”是一项非常重要的工作。作为在中国改革开放最初就来到中国，并一直关注中国、不断了解中国、始终热爱中国的外国人，我真诚希望能够利用自己的经验和对中国的熟悉，帮助瑞士增进对中国的了解，同时也帮助中国更好地了解瑞士，促进两国之间的紧密合作。

我是中国的老朋友。1978年改革开放之初，我受瑞士一家企业的委托，第一次来到中国，筹办中外合资企业。那时，我对这个陌生的国家充满了好奇。至今印象深刻的是，那时的中国妇女们留着整齐划一的发型，衣服颜色暗沉，人们的思想观念也较为保守。后来，我多次来到中国，也曾作为瑞士驻华大使常驻中国。上世纪90年代初，我开始收藏中国的当代艺术品，与中国的艺术家们交流，通过他们的眼睛、他们的经历来了解这个国家的历史文化和人民生活。我有幸见证了这个国家的巨变，亲身参与了这个国家改革开放的进程。短短30年，中国万象更新，焕发出勃勃生机，如今的活力四射世界有目共睹。

但同时，我也看到了经济快速发展给中国带来的城市发展问题，如对环境造成了一定程度的破坏，以及城乡发展的差距等。我相信，正是基于对这些问题的认识和忧虑，上海世博会最终将主题确定于“城市，让生活更美好”。这超越了过去世博会主要展现科技发明进步成果的范畴，开创性地为全世界提供了一个共同探讨城市发展问题的平台。这充分展现了中国直面发展中问题的勇气和决心，也充满了前瞻性的智慧。

经济快速发展带来的城市问题已是世界范围内一个非常热门而棘手的问题，各国都在寻找解决问题的 “钥匙”。如今中国面临的许多状况，瑞士当年也曾遇到。瑞士和中国乍一看并无太多共同点，瑞士的国土面积小，人口只有740万。它不像中国有那么广阔的国土和庞大的人口，人均资源稀缺。但事实上两国面临一些相同的发展问题。如人口密度都很大，很多土地都不适合居住，瑞士1/3的土地都是岩石、森林和湖。因此，瑞士长期以来，一直在寻找城乡和谐、人与自然融洽相处的可持续发展道路。

It is a great honor for me to be invited by the Swiss government to personally participate in the pageant of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China as the Commissioner-General for the Swiss Pavilion, which is a very important assignment. As a foreigner who came to China at the very beginning of its reforms and opening-up and who has always studied the country with persistent attention and love, I sincerely hope that I can use my experience and knowledge to help Switzerland improve its understanding about China. Meanwhile, I will also help China better understand Switzerland to promote close cooperation between the two nations.

I have been an old friend of China. I made my first visit to this country at the very start of its reforms and opening-up in 1978, when I was appointed by a Swiss company to prepare for the incorporation of a joint venture. At that time, I was full of curiosity about this strange country. I still remember clearly how Chinese women used to wear the same unvarying hairstyle and gloomy-colored suits and how people stuck to their traditional ideology. After that, I revisited this country several times and once resided there as the Swiss Ambassador to China. In the early 1990s, I started collecting modern Chinese artwork and communicating with Chinese artists, through whose eyes and experiences I have understood this country's history and culture and the lives of its people. It has been an honor for me to witness the fundamental changes in China and to personally participate in its reforms and opening-up policies. In a mere three decades, China has taken on a brand new look in every aspect and exhibited to the whole world its great vigor and dazzling glamour.

Meanwhile, however, I have also seen how China's rapid economic growth has created some problems, such as environmental damage and a gap between urban and rural development. I believe an understanding and concern about these problems helped motivate this World Expo to choose the theme "Better City, Better Life." Reaching beyond the scope of its predecessors, which centered their exhibitions on scientific and technological inventions, progress and achievements, this World Expo has innovatively provided the whole world with a platform for joint discussion about urban development issues. It fully exhibits China’s courage and resolution in facing up to problems in its own development and brims with foresight and intelligence.

Since urban problems arising from rapid economic growth have become a hot and thorny issue for the whole world, many nations have been trying to find a "key" for addressing these problems. Switzerland once faced many problems similar to those China is facing today. At the first glance, Switzerland and China seem dissimilar. Switzerland is a small territory with a population of only 7.4 million. It is not as vast or populated as China and suffers a per-capita shortage of resources. However, the two nations are actually facing some similar development problems such as density of population and large tracts of inhospitable land. One-third of Switzerland’s territory consists of rocks, forests and lakes. Over a long time, Switzerland has been looking for an approach to sustainable development to achieve harmony between urban and rural areas, between human beings and nature.

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