UAE expo delegation will head to Milan

The mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, left, with Stefano Gatti, general manager for participants at Expo Milano 2015, meet at the St Regis Corniche hotel in Abu Dhabi. Mr Pisapia is hoping Milan could sign a sister city agreement with Dubai. Ravindranath K / The NationalShow less

DUBAI // A UAE delegation will travel to Italy in the summer to see first-hand preparations for next year’s world fair.

Members of the organising committee for Expo 2020 and transport, police and port officials are likely to visit Milan in late August or September.

Plans for the trip will be discussed at a meeting on Tuesday morning between the mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, and Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, head of the Dubai Expo 2020 organising committee.

Mr Pisapia will also present Sheikh Ahmed with the first ticket for Milan 2015, as a symbol of cooperation.

“We would like to invite all the people in Dubai who will have responsibility for preparation to come to Milan to see an expo and realise exactly what the key challenges are they need to face in organising an event of their own,” said Stefano Gatti, an Expo Milano 2015 organiser visiting the UAE with an Italian delegation this week.

“It’s not only for them to see the expo preparations, to see the site, but also to meet their counterparts from the port authority, the police, the transport system – all the different parts you need for an expo to work.”

The two cities signed an agreement in February to cooperate on expo coordination.

Mr Gatti said it was less about creating a carbon copy of the Milan expo than sharing experience. “It’s not about one expo saying to another what sort of expo they should do. The expo in Dubai will absolutely be very different from the expo in Milan.”

“Our expo will be completely different from the one in Shanghai,” Mr Gatti said. “It’s not about copying or doing the same thing.

“Each country has to develop its own concept and its own vision.”

Milan officials travelled to Shanghai to see its expo in 2010, which was, in hindsight, a little late, Mr Gatti said.

“When we came back we applied some important changes to our project. We realised that some of the things we were developing needed to be done in a different way.

“Sharing experience early can be extremely precious in saving time and doing things in a more focused way.”

Authorities in Milan have finished the infrastructure of the site, and pavilions are in the initial stages of construction. Building will be carried out in a series of zones, with Germany, Switzerland and Italy’s pavilions breaking ground first and the remainder – including the UAE – soon to follow.

The Italian delegation were organising an expo promotion event in the UAE to coincide with Italy’s national day celebration.

It is the third official visit in five months, which started with the prime minister Enrico Letta in February.

In May, Franco D’Alfonso, the councillor for tourism at the Milan city authority, visited the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.

Mr Pisapia said the visits were a sign of a strengthening relationship between the two cities, one he hopes will continue to improve.

“It’s not only important to make a connection between the two expo organising committees, but also between the two local authorities,” he said. “That’s why we are working to prepare, and hopefully sign a twinning between Milan and Dubai as local authorities.”

Dubai has 32 sister cities, including New York and Dundee, Scotland. Milan has at least 15.

Mr Pisapia said it was only an idea, but one he hoped would catch on.

“We are very different, but we are both international cities and we can learn a lot from each other.”