A worker harvests vegetables at a farm located at the site of a future Disneyland theme park in Pudong, Shanghai. Infrastructure work on the attraction is set to begin this year. [Photo / Bloomberg]

Leisure and tourism company says media reports "are not true"

SHANGHAI - Oriental Land Co Ltd, the operator of Tokyo Disney Resort, on Thursday denied local media reports that it is negotiating with Walt Disney Co to participate in the running of a planned Disneyland theme park in Shanghai. The total investment could top 100 billion yuan ($15.09 billion), according to the reports.

"We have approached neither Walt Disney Co nor the Shanghai municipal government about jointly running the Shanghai Disneyland theme park," Hiroshi Suzuki, director of public relations at the leisure and tourism company, told China Daily on Thursday, adding that "media reports are not true".

A report in the 21st Century Business Herald claimed Oriental Land has begun talks with the US-based Walt Disney Co to participate in the operation of the Pudong, Shanghai-based theme park.

The report said Walt Disney Co is pleased with Oriental Land's daily operation and personnel training at its Disneyland theme park in Japan and wants it to bring its experience to Shanghai.

Akiyoshi Yokota, executive-director of Oriental Land, was quoted by Bloomberg in January 2010 as saying "there's a possibility we may work together with Disney in Shanghai".

Infrastructure work on the park is set to begin this year, said a Jan 4 statement by the Shanghai Pudong New Area Construction and Transportation Commission.

A 21st Century Business Herald reporter, Sun Xiaolin, who has been following Shanghai's Disneyland project for several years, said on Thursday that the Shanghai government's total investment in the theme park and a holiday resort will top 100 billion yuan.

Sun said he obtained the information from the minutes of a closed-door meeting of government officials with Pudong New Area at the end of December.

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Investment in the park's main area could reach about 25 billion yuan, and spending on site infrastructure would be 40 billion yuan, he said.

The head of Pudong New Area's publicity office, Han Kesheng, said he has "no knowledge" about the December meeting or the information. The Senior Government Affairs Manager with Walt Disney Co (Shanghai) Ltd, Mark Wang, refused to comment on the investment figure.

The US company signed an agreement for the establishment of the Shanghai Disney theme park on Nov 5 with Shanghai Shendi Group, which was specifically created by the Shanghai government for the development of the project.

The agreement ends a decade-long negotiating marathon for Walt Disney Co to bring its first theme park to the Chinese mainland. The park will be its fourth outside the United States after Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The site for Shanghai's Disneyland is expected to cover about 4 square kilometers.