Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
EXPO 2020 bid by UAE and Dubai's boom
Five theme parks are planned for Jebel Ali, the area closest to the proposed Expo 2020 site.
The General Assembly of the BIE (or Bureau
International des Expositions), a multinational group with representatives from
163 countries that meets in Paris to oversee the selection of the Expo host
nations. It will meet in June 2013 to consider the mission reports from each of
the competing countries - the UAE, Thailand, Brazil, Russia and Turkey.
Tangible effects are difficult to measure, but
an independent study for the Dutch pavilion at Expo 2000 estimated that the
pavilion (which cost around €35 million) generated around €350 million of
potential revenues for the Dutch economy. It also identified several key
success factors for world-exposition pavilions in general.
Expo 2020 will likely represent a first no
matter which city wins. If Ayutthaya wins the bid, it would be Thailand's first
world's fair. If Dubai or Izmir win, it will be the first Middle Eastern expo.
Expo 2020 will be the first Russian world's fair if Ekaterinburg wins. A Sao
Paulo victory would make it the first world's fair in South America and Latin
America as well as the first in the Western Hemisphere in 34 years and the
first in the Southern Hemisphere in 32 years.
Every five years and for a period of six months,
World Expos attract millions of visitors. The World Expo has never been held in
the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia in the history of the event.
The factors influencing the vote at this stage, according to Vicente Loscertales, the BIE secretary general, could include the power of the expo theme, the investment potential, the effect on the country and the region.
The UAE is bidding to host the World Expo 2020
in Dubai under the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’.
Seven years from now, if the UAE wins
its bid to host Expo 2020, 25 million visitors will arrive to find sweeping
changes along its coast and motorways.
In a video message on the bid committee's
website, the technology mogul and philanthropist, Microsoft Chairman, Bill
Gates heaped praise on the emirate and UAE.
"Dubai, as part of the UAE, has modernised
itself, taken on tough projects, brought people together in a number of amazing
ways and I think they would be a great location for a world expo," Mr
Gates says.
The dramatic structures are set to dominate the
2020 skyline - all backed by strong infrastructure in the form of the planned
Etihad Rail network, Al Sufouh Tram and new Dubai Metro links. And that,
experts say, is the foundation of a successful Expo 2020 bid.
Work on one the nation's biggest infrastructure
undertakings, the Dh40 billion Etihad Rail project, has already begun and is
scheduled for completion two years before Expo 2020.
The 1,200-kilometre rail network will not only
link the hamlets, cities and industrial centres of the UAE, but will also form
part of a rail corridor connecting Saudi Arabia in the west and Oman in the
east with freight, and eventually passenger trains.
By next year, the Dh3.2bn Al Sufouh tram project
- a 13-stop route linking to the Metro - is expected to be finished. And the
area surrounding the Dubai Creek in Bur Dubai will be opened to foot traffic
with a new bridge.
By as early as April, work will begin on the
Dh1bn Dubai Eye - a 210-metre high Ferris wheel on an island suburb jutting out
of Dubai Marina.
In what might be one of Dubai's most daring
projects to date, a 2.8km extension of Business Bay Canal will travel over
Sheikh Zayed Road and the Dubai Metro, down into Safa Park, through Jumeirah
and out into the Arabian Gulf.
The engineering marvel will make use of a boat
elevator, inspired by Scotland's Falkirk Wheel, to safely lift boats on to and
down from an elevated waterway. The Dh1.5bn canal project also includes cycling
and pedestrian tracks along its banks.
Five theme parks are planned for Jebel Ali, the
area closest to the proposed Expo 2020 site.
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