UAE infrastructure being built for Expo 2020 to be permanent, says Minister of State

Dubai said after winning the right to host in 2013 that it would earmark more than US$7billion for infrastructure projects.

The UAE Minister of State Reem Al Hashimy said that whatever is being built for Expo 2020 is ‘part of Dubai’s vision of growth’. Ravindranath K / The National

The UAE will ensure the infra­structure it builds for Expo 2020 are permanent, according to the UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation, Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau Reem Al Hashimy.

The exposition, which includes the construction of buildings on its 160,000 square metre site, will also necessitate much-needed civil works such as metros, as well as roads and bridges and airports, said Ms Hashimy, who is also the managing director of the Dubai Expo 2020 Higher Committee and director general of Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau.

“Whatever we build, we want it to become permanent,” Ms Al Hashimy told the NBAD Global Financial Markets Forum 2016 in Abu Dhabi yesterday. “Many world expos, they tear it down at the end of the event itself. Everything that we are building, we are actually keeping. In many ways, what we are building for [Expo] 2020 is actually part of Dubai’s vision of growth.”

After winning the right to host the event in 2013, Dubai it would earmark more than US$7 billion for infrastructure projects.

In its 2016 budget announced in December, Dubai set aside Dh16.6bn for infrastructure, transport and economics – a rise of Dh1.8bn from the previous year – to cater for the increase in spending ahead of Expo 2020.

Ms Al Hashimy also said that the event itself would generate considerable revenue, aiding the country in its efforts to diversify its economy away from oil, with more than 25 million people expected to attend.

“There’s a lot of revenue that will come from the expo,” she said. “The rent that we get from participants, concessions, partnerships.”

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