Big-spending Dubai to host 2020 World Expo, the first Mideast venue
From the folks who brought the world the 24-karat gold iPad, the tallest skyscraper and the first government program that pays citizens to lose weight will come the 2020 World Expo.
Dubai was selected Wednesday by the 168-nation International Expositions Bureau in Paris to host the event, the first Middle Eastern state to stage the world’s fair in its 150-year history.
Jubilant rulers and residents of the tiny Arab emirate set off fireworks, illuminated the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa tower and promised to stage an expo that would “astonish the world.â€
“We are immensely proud to have been awarded the honor of hosting World Expo 2020,†Expo committee chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum pronounced in a statement from Paris carried by the United Arab Emirates 24/7 news site under a headline declaring: “Dubai Wins by Far.â€
“It was a hard-fought victory; we were up against strong competitors, to whom we offer our full respect and sincere wishes,†the Dubai Expo 2020 team said via Twitter, praising the bids of three other finalists: Izmir, Turkey; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Dubai expects to spend $8.4 billion to stage the six-month event, and officials have projected that the massive building project and tourist influx through 2021 will generate $23 billion, committee officials told the Paris organizers.
Dubai’s per capita GDP is already the 15th highest in the world at $50,000 a year, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, opened to opulent fanfare in 2010. A Dubai hotel, the Burj Al Arab, also made headlines this year when it presented each guest with a 24-karat gold iPad upon check-in at the luxury accommodation, where rooms start at $1,525 a night.
But the government spends relatively little on public health services, and a World Health Organization report this year, “The Weight of Affluence,†said half of Dubai’s 5.5 million people are overweight or obese.
That prompted the wealthy emirate government to offer citizens about $20 per pound of lost weight and a chance to win a $5,000 grand prize in the slimming contest.
Dubai spent lavishly on its bid to host Expo 2020, emblazoning its snowflake-like logo on taxis, building facades and shopping bags and sending a national team to plant the UAE flag on the summit of Kilimanjaro.
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Twitter: @cjwilliamslat
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