Philip Brass was Managing Director of Pacific Dunlop Ltd between 1988 and 1996 and has extensive experience in the Australian retail and consumer-goods industry. He is also a past Chairman of the International Business Leaders’Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai and returns annually to Shanghai as an honorary council member.

Philip Brass

Shanghai has over the centuries been the leading cultural and commercial metropolis of China. As China goes forward and rapidly becomes a modern city, so too will it continue to provide ever improving conditions for its citizens, and become a model in China that clearly demonstrates the concept of "Better City, Better Life".

This will be a major challenge, but given the historical performance of Shanghai, I have no doubt that the city will provide superior living conditions, modern services and an internationally competitive environment where its citizens, the citizens of China and the world, will see a model of economic development and superior social conditions that can be an example to both developed and developing nations in the decades and centuries to come.

The World Expo in 2010 will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase Shanghai in this light and share with other nations the social, cultural and environmental standards that can be achieved.