World Expo 2020 Dubai, the first international exhibition to be organized in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, opens its doors to exhibitors from nearly 191 countries, Friday, after an opening ceremony expected at 15:30 GMT Thursday evening.
The opening ceremony will be broadcast to millions of viewers around the world via multiple channels, including Expo Virtual and Expo TV.
The exhibition, which was postponed for a year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, will last 6 months from the beginning of October to March 31, 2022, and the global event is considered the largest commercial and economic event since the outbreak of the epidemic.
The World Expo 2020 Dubai website says that the mega event is preparing to contribute to shaping the features of the world in -pandemic period and creating a better future, noting that the new date will allow everyone to overcome the consequences of the epidemic.
And for the first time in the 170-year history of the World Expo, each country will have its own pavilion, which is a record number that embodies the importance of the event in light of the challenges facing the world today.
Expo 2020 will bring together many of the participating entities, including 200 entities, as well as companies, multilateral organizations, and educational institutions.
Solutions to Challenges
The global event focuses on harnessing the potential to stimulate minds, with the aim of finding solutions to challenges by employing innovation and providing platforms that inspire and stimulate creativity, with the aim of continuing human progress in all fields.
The Emirate of Dubai aims to attract 25 million visitors to the exhibition from inside and outside the Emirates, which is more than the visitors to Expo Milano, and more than twice the residents of the Emirates.
Many participating countries confirmed the completion of their pavilions and their readiness for the global event over the past year and a half.
The previous edition of the exhibition, which was hosted by the Italian city of Milan in 2015, attracted about 21 million visitors.
Economic return
The UAE’s investment in World Expo 2020 Dubai will return, with an economic return of 122.6 billion dirhams (33.4 billion dollars) in the long term, according to a previous independent study published by Ernst & Young Consulting in 2019.
In November 2013, the UAE won the bid to host the “World Expo 2020” in a lottery in the French capital, Paris, to be the first country in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia to host this global event.
The Expo site was built from scratch on an area of more than four square kilometers, equivalent to about 600 football fields, and cost about $7 billion, according to unofficial data.
The official Emirates News Agency, WAM, said that 134 teams from 95 nationalities worked as one global team to bring Expo 2020 out in the best way.
