UAE up against four strong competitors

Aspiring to become the first-ever World Expo host in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates is working hard to win the bid for the 2020 event. Its competitors are Thailand, Brazil, Russia and Turkey. 

In her capacity as managing director of the committee tasked with hosting the event in 2020 in Dubai, Minister of State Reem Ebrahim Al Hashemi said she was optimistic about winning support from 160 voting countries for hosting the six-month-long exposition. 

She presented her country’s potential as a host to 60 journalists from 26 nations, who were in the UAE as part of an event organised by the National Media Council to mark the country’s 41st National Day.

She explained that the UAE had a good track record in hosting global events, with existing and soon-to-be completed facilities such as the proposed 438-hectare Dubai Trade Centre-Jebel Ali and subway lines, as well as its plan to promote small and medium-sized enterprises to serve the event. She said holding World Expo 2020 in Dubai would also coincide with the UAE’s golden jubilee celebrations. 

The Expo, which should draw 25 million visitors, has been proposed along the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”. Reem said this theme reflected Dubai’s cultural diversity and its ability to bring different creative minds together on a single platform, as well as a belief that the way to achieve a bright future depends on the ability to interact positively and have constructive partnerships.

Confirming that security would be given top priority, she said the UAE was perhaps one of the most secure and stable nations as well as one of the world’s top 10 countries in terms of low crime rates. 

Dubai is among the five candidates competing for the event. The others are Thailand’s Ayutthaya under the proposed theme “Balanced Life, Sustainable Living”; Brazil’s Sao Paulo with “Power of Diversity, Harmony for Growth”; Russia’s Yekaterinburg with the theme “Global Minds: Uniting All Humanity in a Single Conversation”; and Turkey’s Izmir with “New Routes to a Better World, Health for All”.

The host will be chosen through a popular vote from the 160 Bureau International des Expositions member countries in November next year. 

The next World Expo will take place at Milan, Italy, in 2015 under the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.