Expo 2020 Dubai workers plan for life after world's fair

After years of anticipation and planning and six months of hard work on the ground, thousands of staff at Expo 2020 Dubai are preparing for life once the world’s fair ends.

While some will stay in Dubai, many will return home to the nations whose pavilions they have represented since the exhibition opened its gates on October 1.

Most have collected souvenirs to remind them of their time in Dubai, while others have made new connections and found job opportunities in the months ahead.

Glen Grixti at the Malta pavilion worked with Emirates for 16 years before joining the exhibition, and will take a government role developing new businesses when he returns home next month.

Expo has helped establish an amazing network for people like me, from all over the world

Tuzcu Munirgalip,
UK Pavilion

“I will make a map with all the badges I have collected at Expo when I go home to Malta,” said Mr Grixti, 40.

“Dubai is like my second home, I’ve lived here for 16 years, so Expo was a great opportunity for me to come back but now I am looking forward to going home to Malta.

“I have missed the food, and my family, of course.”

Pastizzi, a pastry filled with ricotta and peas, is a traditional snack in Malta that Mr Grixti has missed most of all.

As a kitesurfer who has competed around the world, he is also looking forward to the reliable Mediterranean Gregale winds to resume his sporting passion.

Visitors to his pavilion have been most surprised by the Maltese language, he said, with its Semitic origin written in the Latin script.

“Malta has a great history going back 8,000 years, so we have a lot to offer and people are fascinated by our language,” he said.

“Our dishes are mainly Sicilian based, with a little Arabic fusion, so I have missed our food.

Glen Grixti at the Malta Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 is one of the thousands of staff preparing for new opportunities once the exhibition closes this month. Photo: Nick Webster / The National

“Anyone coming for the first time to Expo this month should try to visit in the evening to see the Al Wasl dome. It is special at night.

“The Saudi Arabia, UAE, German and Japanese pavilions are all really worth queuing for too.”

At the UK Pavilion, Turkish national Tuzcu Munirgalip has been serving fish and chips to visitors since October.

Mr Munirgalip has carved a career for himself around Expo events around the world, and hopes that can continue.

Contacts and future job prospects

“I have worked at other Expos since 2013 and it was through those contacts that helped get me this position in Dubai,” he said.

“It has helped establish an amazing network for people like me, from all over the world.

“So far, I have been to more than 70 per cent of the pavilions. Japan, Germany and South Korea were the highlights.

“There were great interactions inside, and they each told the story of how they were created.

“It felt like you were living the culture while learning about the building itself.”

Interest remains strong in visiting the exhibition, with more than a million visits registered in the last week of February, and 16 million in total.

Mr Munirgalip said there was still time for first-time visitors to make the most of the events and live music concerts still to come before March 31.

“There are more than a hundred events taking place most days, so if people still haven’t been and want to come, they need to plan ahead,” said Mr Munirgalip.

“Music events and smaller concerts have been great, and there is still plenty to catch.”

At the Samoan Pavilion, volunteer Satheesh Kuttan has taken days off work to give up his time for free during the exhibition and will miss the hustle and bustle of everyday life on site.

“The last six months have gone by so quickly,” said Mr Kuttan, from India.

“If anyone wants to come in the last few weeks, I would suggest coming early in the morning before the crowds get too busy.

“I will be going back to my administration and accounting job, and I will miss coming here.

“I have taken annual leave from my job to work.

“I’ve collected 127 badges so far from the different pavilions — I have just three weeks to collect the rest.”

Expo 2020 Dubai passports – in pictures

In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

How it works

A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank

Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night

The charge is stored inside a battery

The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode

A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes

This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode

When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again

The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge

No limit on how many times you can charge

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”