The past few days have been a nail-biting experience for most of UAE as Dubai,
one of the seven Emirates that makes up United Arab Emirates, has been contending to win the right to host the World Expo 2020. The thrilling night of voting happened today in the French capital Paris.
After defeating rival bids from Turkey’s Izmir, Brazil’s Sao Paolo and Russia’s Yekaterinburg following three rounds of closed voting, Dubai emerged as the winner to host the Expo 2020 event. All this happened at the 154th Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in Paris, France.
Dubai’s bid had been publicly backed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, London Mayor Boris Johnson, former US president Bill Clinton, Canada, France and a number of international superstars.
The Emirate led the race throughout, as Brazil’s Sao Paolo and Turkey’s Izmir were eliminated in the first and second rounds respectively. In the final round, Dubai received 116 votes from 168 BIE member nations, beating Russia’s Yekaterinburg. Victory was confirmed at around 8:30pm local time, leading to scenes of jubilation across the Emirate.
The result means that 2020 will mark the first time that the Expo – which is more than a century old and has been responsible for the launch of multiple inventions including the typewriter, tomato sauce and electricity – has been held in the Middle East.
According to news reports, about 25 million tourists are expected to visit Dubai during the six-month event. Reports also suggest that Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Emirate’s top financial official and a member of the Expo committee, said Dubai would invest $8.1 billion in new infrastructure now that it has been successful in winning its bid to host Expo 2020.
