DUBAI // Hosting Expo 2020 will forge an enduring link between the UAE and Italy, said visiting Milan Expo 2015 delegates.
“We have something we share because we are implementing an expo and we are going to do this soon, and you will in five years’ time, so this is a journey we share together,” said Fabrizio Sala, a regional minister for this year’s expo and international business, who is on a three-day visit to the UAE that ends on Tuesday.
“Our theme of ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for life’, and yours, ‘Connecting minds, Creating the Future’, connect different sectors.”
Mobility, sustainability and opportunity are the key themes of the Expo 2020 Dubai.
Mr Sala said families and businesspeople from the emirates were welcome to attend the expo in Milan, which opens on May 1 and will run for six months.
A formal invitation has been sent for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.
“We hope to have the honour to host the Prime Minister of the UAE, and a formal letter to visit has been addressed to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid by the Italian prime minister to visit Italy during Expo Milano,” said Giorgio Starace, the Italian ambassador to the UAE.
About 145 countries will participate in the Milan expo, with eight million tickets sold so far – three million of these visitors will be from Italy.
About 53 countries, including the UAE, have built pavilions at the expo.
Work on the sprawling UAE pavilion – with 12-metre tall walls stretching around a 140-metre site – began in April and the testing of the structure is scheduled for next month.
The pavilion will recreate sand dunes and wadis with the aim of portraying the global challenges of food, water and land, along with interactive media.
“Your pavilion is wonderful and it has built a lot of curiosity among Italians,” said Mr Sala.
“Many people believe that your pavilion will be in the top 10 most-visited pavilions in the expo. The UAE is very important to us from a commercial point of view, because our trade is growing and will continue to grow.”
Representatives from Italian provinces will visit the UAE over the next few months to build interest in a range of industries that includes agriculture, food safety, aerospace engineering and fashion.
Delegates from the UAE will be taken on roadtrips to factories and farms where products originate, as well as visits to different pavilions.
“We are expecting a lot of UAE visitors, like retailers and importers, who want to know our tradition and processes in the dairy, milk, cheese, meats and confectionery sectors,” said Antonio Cellie, the chief executive of Fiere di Parma.
“So we will receive them in the expo and then take them around the Parma area.”
The issue of food security is also likely to feature during meetings at the expo, because Gulf countries depend heavily on food imports.
UAE-based companies own and operate farms in Serbia, Egypt, Spain and Pakistan. A recent report from the Arab Forum for Environment and Development noted that, as of 2011, Arab countries spent more than Dh205 billion annually on food imports.
“Nutrition and food security are one of our many common ties,” said Luigi Scordamaglia, the president of the Italian Food and Drink Industry Federation.
“Our thinking and yours is that the oil of the future will be land, and food security is an important subject for the UAE.
“I see the opportunity for us going together in other parts of the world in joint ventures, because where there is land there is an opportunity to produce food.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae
