Simon Clegg, British Olympics veteran and now chief operating officer of Dubai’s Expo 2020, on the spectacle of “the greatest show on earth” and the opportunities for UK and international businesses, including the 47 construction contracts to be awarded in 2017 alone
On a site visible from the edge of space, representatives from every nation on earth will be gathered together in one place at one time for Dubai Expo 2020 to showcase the best and the brightest from their countries, tell their stories, share their cultures, talk to visitors and, most importantly, to each another.
That extraordinary, unique fact is already proving an irresistible story.
It began more than a century and a half ago: London’s 1851 Great Exhibition, the vision of Queen Victoria’s consort Prince Albert, reflected the achievements of science and technology of the age, and the promise and the challenges of the future.
It was massively popular and so profitable, the idea grew and spread – first across Europe, then across the Atlantic and globally.
In time, this universal expedition became known as world fairs or expeditions. They were mega events, a gigantic global celebration of all things new and exciting in art, artistry, science and wonder.
Now that mega event is coming to Dubai in a little under 1300 days’ time and on the eve of the UAE’s golden jubilee.
The preparations are already happening all around us as we transform our huge site, twice the size of London’s Hyde Park
25 million visitors will have the chance to experience all of this coupled with legendary Arabian hospitality in what will be a very special experience indeed.
Visitors will see the achievements of young scientists, entrepreneurial innovators, global corporations and artists working on every medium from sculpture to virtual reality, all presented in a highly accessible, highly entertaining and educational way for guests of every age and background.
The preparations are already happening all around us as we transform our huge site twice the size of London’s Hyde Park to what will be simultaneously a garden, city, laboratory, museum, arena, souk, fun fare and global café.
Last month we awarded a US$599m (£465m) contract to the main construction consortium, the first of 47 such construction contracts to be awarded in 2017 alone. You can see the expo means business not just for 2020, but for decades to come.
Our expo will consider the scientific and social application of everything from artificial intelligence to genome therapy, and from sustainability to flying cars.
But more significantly than all of these scientific and social marvels, it will do something no other event can do: it will offer an opportunity to explore the power of connection and collaboration.
This is a festival of human ingenuity that His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has called an ‘olympics for the mind’. It starts with three Is: ingenuity, invention, innovation.
Change has already started on a 438-hectare site where over 40,000 construction workers will be employed at the peak of our works programme.
We have already moved 4.7bn cubic metres of sand to level our site and embed the colossal infrastructure that will be necessary to support our event and legacy requirements.
Click here to watch a live recorded video of Clegg’s presentation.
Sitting at the heart of a host of related infrastructure projects, Expo 2020, located in the new region of Dubai South, will accelerate development, devising today what we know will be needed tomorrow: the Metro extension, road improvements, new hotels, new housing, all with cutting age building techniques, heavily utilising solar based energy generation.
There are such innovations in the future, all happening in time for 2020, but not just because of 2020. They will help turbocharge the UAE’s progress towards fulfilling Vision 2021 and other innovation programmes that seek to transform the nation into a regional, global and logistics hub, and a post-hydrocarbon knowledge-based economy.
All of this will further boost inward investment currently running at close to 45bn AED (£9.5bn) a year.
For foreign investors and businesses alike, Expo 2020 will shine a light on our welcoming business culture
As this is the first such mega event held in the Middle East and North Africa region, Expo 2020 will inevitably raise the profile of this region and the UAE’s place as a gateway to it.
Expo 2020 will bring together 180 countries, 100 of which are already committed to participate in the event, showcasing the best of what they have to offer, not just around our chosen themes but around their cultures, their traditions and their cuisine.
Out of our anticipated 25m visitors, 70% are expected to be from outside the UAE, equating to every ticket sold at the London and Rio Olympics and Paralympics together, as well as every ticket sold in the past two football World Cups combined
All of this will boost what is already one of the UAE’s most successful offerings: leisure and tourism.
Dubai Expo 2020 and the attention it will create forms a huge shop window, an increased public awareness of the many tourist attractions in the UAE and the Gulf.
So what will happen in 2021 when we close our gates? What about that often overused word legacy?
Already a global trade and travel hub between east and west, after the event the Expo 2020 site will transform into a major new business and logistic district, located adjacent to what will become the world’s busiest airport and just 7km from what is already one of the world largest ports.
Our site will transition into an invaluable addition to the nation and to Smart Dubai – a major transport, logistics and scientific development hub.
The post-expo site will be a multi-disciplinary environment reusing some 80% of the buildings and infrastructure we have constructed and in the process turning into a diverse campus in which pure research and development can nurture key industries vital to the UAE, all supported by art and academia, culture, business and commerce.
Siemens’ significant announcement to base their global logistic headquarters on our site in legacy mode is testament to the success of our strategy.
This well thought through cluster strategy aims to bring together disruptive and influential technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and virtual reality with the nation’s most strategically important industries: education logistics, travel and tourism, construction and real estate
By creating space and time for these shared ideas and collaboration, stimulating visitor numbers through magnificent buildings, spellbinding content and seamless infrastructure, Expo 2020 will help us promote greater diversification into economic transformation, particularly boosting opportunities for SMEs to whom we have committed a full 20% of our total spend.
In that respect, we will work in sync with strategic initiatives inspired by the ruler to make Dubai the happiest city on the planet using public private collaboration to deliver an efficient, seamless, safe and meaningful life for residents and visitors alike.
The site itself will benefit from the three benchmarks of future progress: increased opportunity, enhanced mobility and innate sustainability.
Expo recognises that the group with most urgent stake in the future are our young citizens
Our team is working hard to ensure that a future and further effective expo is to promote youth engagement, upskilling and employment. Youth employment does not merely depend on creating new roles. We must also ensure our young have the soft skills to perform them. Things like working as a team, interacting with each other, embedding a desire to learn and strong leadership skills and talents.
Developing these softer abilities is largely exerted through our ambitious volunteer programme that aims to include tens of thousands of people from wide range of ages, nationalities, cultures and backgrounds. These enthusiastic people are going to be the welcoming face with which we greet the world when Dubai Expo 2020 opens its door in October 2020. They will go on to play a central and critical role in the future of the nation.
Working together, we plan to lift the national and international mood and the world’s perception of the city, the country and the whole Arab world.
So many things we take for granted today have been premiered and showcased at previous world expos, from the telephone to tomato ketchup
Our intent is that every young person inspired by the technological wonders and exciting structures of the expo will add to a new gene pool of potential innovation for the future.
• This is an abridged version of Simon Clegg’s presentation at EG’s Middle East Real Estate Forum in Dubai on 26 April
