Featuring 145 countries, international organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union and non-government organisations including Oxfam, Save the Children and the World Wide Fund for Nature, Expo Milano 2015 opens today under the title "Feeding the planet, energy for life".
The organisers of the six-month-long event are expecting to host more than 20 million visitors to Milan’s 1.1-million-square-metre exhibition site, and expectations are high following the success of the 2010 Expo in Shanghai.
Not only did Shanghai attract a record-breaking 73 million visitors, but it was also widely regarded as a return to form for an event and a format that had lacked a sense of purpose and identity since the last great headline-capturing Expos in Seattle (1962), Montreal (1967) and Osaka (1970).
In much the same way that the 1970 Osaka Expo, the first to be held in Asia, heralded the emergence of Japan as a new economic power, commentators are now looking forward to Dubai Expo 2020, the first to be held in the Middle East, and are speculating about what it will mean not just for the city but for the UAE as a whole.
For the UAE-based architect and academic Yasser Elsheshtawy, Expos blend ideas of national identity and brand building with diplomacy and propaganda, and provide the perfect opportunity to understand how countries use spectacular pavilions – expotecture – to represent themselves on the world stage.
For Emiratis, that process started in 1970 when Sheikh Zayed, the founding President of the UAE, commissioned a pavilion, which took the form of a fort, from the Abu Dhabi-based Egyptian architect and town planner Abdulrahman Makhlouf.
“In 1970, the UAE had yet to be formed as a nation, it had not been developed from an urban perspective and neither had its cities, so it made sense to use a symbol that would easily communicate both the country and Arabia,” Elsheshtawy explains.
“The fort was a very convenient symbol, and the pavilion was a way for Abu Dhabi, and by extension the UAE, to show that it was becoming a nation on the world stage.”
So powerful was the image of the fort in the national consciousness that it formed the basis for the design of the UAE national Expo pavilions at Seville in 1992 and Hanover eight years later.
“After the large-scale copy of Al Jahili Fort that was used in 2000, there was a realisation that the UAE needed to move beyond the image of the fort. I think that was also a reflection of the fact that as nations modernise, they tend to move beyond the use of such direct symbols,” says Elsheshtawy.
“That made the design of the Shanghai pavilion in 2010 a really radical departure. The authorities hired a world-class architectural firm and that made the notion of simply copying a fort too simplistic.”
The designers of the 2010 UAE Shanghai pavilion, Foster + Partners, are also responsible for the design of this year’s national pavilion in Milan, and both structures look to the UAE’s landscape for their inspiration.
As a strategy, the use of landscape metaphors allows the UAE to speak about itself in more abstract terms, such as sustainability, but for Elsheshtawy the use of such references in national pavilion designs is still a matter of copying.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but I don’t think things have moved far enough,” he says, looking forward to Dubai Expo 2020. “I think that the next step in dealing with these types of structures and buildings is to take some risks.
“When you look at the UK pavilion in Shanghai, which was designed by [Thomas] Heatherwick, it was just this brilliant structure ... it was something that dealt with universal themes as opposed to something that is a more direct symbol. I think that has to be the next step.”
Yasser Elsheshtawy's book, Representing the UAE: World Expos & the Search for Identity 1970-2015, is being published by Brownbook and Cultural Engineering, the curators of The Giving Tree exhibition, part of the UAE avilion exhibit at the Expo Milano 2015.
nleech@thenational.ae
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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