Dubai officials are counting on “the Expo effect” to bring a windfall of hundreds of billions of dirhams that will trickle through into all areas of the UAE’s economy.
Event organisers this week called on businesses to help build on the momentum gained from Dubai’s successful bid to host the world fair. They’re looking to forge partnerships with the private sector to meet their ambitious targets for investment and job creation.
More than 200 senior business leaders, including the Jumeirah chief executive Gerald Lawless, Aramex founder Fadi Ghandour, du chief executive Osman Sultan and Dubai World Trade Centre chief executive Helal Almarri gathered on Tuesday morning at the Expo 2020 site in Jebel Ali to hear from the event’s higher committee.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, highlighted the importance of exchanging ideas, and said that many new projects will be implemented in the country by the time Expo 2020 is inaugurated.
Reem Al Hashemy, the minister of state and director general of the Expo 2020 Bureau, said it’s the time to build on “the Expo effect”.
“I am talking about legacies that will foster profound scientific attainments, increase our body of working knowledge, deliver substantial innovations, continue to boost the region fiscally and through the expansion of a knowledge-based economy so vital to all our tomorrows,” she said.
Al Hashemy said that the challenges that trouble the region, including water scarcity, a need for education and more jobs, could be met through a combined effort.
“To confront these issues will require constant flows of intellectual and financial capital, tolerance born from a shared recognition and understanding of our true problems and partnerships at every level to foster innovation, ensure the right kind of education, mentor our poorest or weakest citizens and in so doing build sustainable businesses that can work with us, in collaboration, to create the future,” she said.
A report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch ahead of Dubai winning the Expo bid in 2013 said hosting the event would require US$8 billion (Dh29.38bn) in investment and would boost the economy by about $25bn. The expo organisers’ forecasts show about €17bn (Dh68.21bn) in economic benefits by 2021. More than 275,000 jobs will be created over the next six years around the region as a result, according to the Expo 2020 website.
To be held between October 2020 and April 2021, the Expo also coincides with the country’s Golden Jubilee, and will help shape the development of the UAE for years to come, organisers said.
The event’s stated legacy will include “state-of-the-art infrastructure, urban planning and development of human capital and the skills required for the knowledge economy”.
“Overall the positive halo effect of the Expo 2020 Dubai will leave behind a strong transformative social and economic legacy across the region,” according to the event website.
The event’s success hinges on attracting some of the 2.9 billion people who live within the UAE’s immediate vicinity, in the Middle East, Africa and south and central Asia, organisers said.
The country’s growing transport links, boosted by the expansion of airlines such as Emirates and Etihad, the development of airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the logistics corridor running from Jebel Ali all the way to Khalifa Port, will help boost trade and attract more businesses and investment from these regions.
Already property prices have been given a fillip by expected demand and population growth following the emirate winning the right to host the event two years ago, as more companies and individuals looked to set up here.
Last year, Dubai was among the fastest-growing cities in the world. Its GDP per capita expanded at a rate of 4.5 per cent in 2014; employment increased by 6.5 per cent during the period. Even as oil prices remain 40 per cent below their summer peaks last year, the outlook for Dubai remains robust given the emirate’s diversified economy.
