The Summer Olympics in Japan are in question and a growing number of high-profile events, including Texas’ vaunted South by Southwest festival and Barcelona’s massive annual tech conference, have already been canceled because of coronavirus.
But organizers of perhaps the biggest and most expensive international event of the year, the world’s fair in Dubai, say they are still moving full-steam ahead toward opening the 6-month-long extravaganza on schedule in late October.
A spokesperson for Dubai Expo 2020, which the United Arab Emirates hopes will bring a more than $30 billion boost to its economy, insisted this week that while coronavirus developments are being monitored closely, all preparations for the expo “remain on track.”
It’s a massive event slated to include over 190 countries, with thousands of global businesses and officials showcasing everything from futuristic technologies to vast cultural and historical displays.
The Trump administration has put its weight behind the idea that all systems will be a go by October, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeting Friday that he’s “excited to tell America’s story at @Expo2020Dubai this fall.”
The confidence flies in the face of mounting global coronavirus panic — a panic that found the IMF and World Bank announcing last week that their annual meetings in Washington will now be held virtually, and the Olympics revealing Monday that its ceremonial torch-lighting will occur in the absence of spectators this week.
The start of Expo 2020 is still more than six months out. The stakes are high for the Emiratis, who have poured billions of dollars into the event in the hopes it will draw in some 25 million visitors.
“What the Emiratis are developing with the expo is hugely consequential for them,” said Ambassador Gerald M. Feierstein, a longtime U.S. diplomat in the region now with the Middle East Institute. “It’s something that they really believe is going to kind of put the UAE on the same global stage as the big boys.”
Dubai is already home to the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and costs for Expo 2020 are reported to be near $7 billion. Construction is underway on the Al Wasl dome, which is billed as the largest 360-degree laser projection surface on earth, and on a massive “Star Wars”-esque Sustainability Pavilion, featuring 1,055 solar panels capable of charging more than 900,000 mobile phones annually.
Past world’s fairs conjured great wonders of engineering, from the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889, the light bulb and Ferris wheel at Chicago’s 1893 fair, the X-ray’s emergence from Buffalo’s 1901 fair, and Seattle’s Space Needle in 1962.
But more recent extravaganzas have had a more checkered record.
The 1984 world’s fair in New Orleans went bankrupt. Expo 2000 in Germany drew 18 million visitors, well short of the 40 million expected, and Milan’s 2015 expo saw rioting over corruption allegations.
A region on edge
For Dubai — the post-modern city state which sees itself as an oasis of order, modern financing and futuristic architecture in a chaotic corner of the world — the possibility that Expo 2020 could be anything but a massive success seemed like a far-off concept.
That was until coronavirus panic gripped the Middle East, where there are now more than 7,000 confirmed infections. The vast majority are in Iran, but other regional governments, including the UAE, which had 74 cases as of Tuesday, are scrambling.
“Everybody’s nervous in the region. They don’t know what’s going to happen with coronavirus,” said Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center in Washington. “It’s a problem and nobody knows how it’s going to develop and spread. It’s already impacting trade, especially in countries like the Emirates.”
Concern about major regional events also reaches well beyond the UAE, said Mr. Jahshan, who pointed to nearby Qatar and its plans to host the global soccer’s World Cup in 2022. Like the Emiratis, the Qataris rely heavily on migrant workers and laborers from Asia, a flow of labor that could be significantly curtailed by the virus scare.
“Everyone is hoping what’s occurring right now with coronavirus is a passing phase and that this will be behind us in a few weeks or months,” said Mr. Jahshan. “But who knows?”
Mr. Feierstein said that “it’s quite conceivable coronavirus will just be the answer to a ‘Jeopardy’ question by the time October rolls around.”
The former U.S. diplomat stressed, however, that more immediate large-scale events could face disruption.
“The bigger and more important question right now is what are the Saudis going to do about the hajj?” he said referencing the annual midsummer pilgrimage that draws more than 2 million Muslims from around the world to Mecca.
The Saudis already temporarily banned foreign pilgrim visits to Mecca over coronavirus. Riyadh has also imposed a lockdown over an oil-producing eastern province, where at least 11 people have tested positive.
Businesses hit hardest right now are those in travel and tourism. For the UAE, that includes Emirates Airlines, which made headlines last week by asking staff to take unpaid leave for up to a month amid a global cascade of flight cancellations.
Even so, promoters of Dubai Expo 2020 say it is premature to be making claims about how things may evolve.
“Anybody who says anything right now about how the coronavirus might or might not impact Dubai Expo 2020 is just purely speculating, because the expo is still six months away,” said Danny Sebright, president of the U.S.-UAE Business Council, which has been championing the expo since Dubai first announced its intention to bid for it back in 2011.
“It’s a realistic expectation that in the next month or so, we’re going to get to the other side of this global crisis and we might know better then if there is any real impact,” said Mr. Sebright. “Yes, it’s going to have a huge economic impact on any country that’s plugged into the global economy, and that includes the UAE, but the informed view is that the world is going to come out the other side of this current health crisis between now and October.”
An Expo 2020 spokesperson, in an email statement to The Washington Times, noted the expo “does not open until late October” and that organizers are “consulting very closely with local authorities … as the situation evolves.”
“We recognize the difficulty that the world is facing,” the spokesperson said. “These are indeed unprecedented times.”
“The health and well-being of everyone visiting and working at Expo 2020 Dubai is of paramount importance to us,” they added. “The number of cases in the UAE is currently low but the UAE authorities remain vigilant by continuously monitoring the situation and taking robust precautionary, preventative measures necessary.”
Mr. Sebright also downplayed the notion that response measures will hinder foreign workers and slow construction projects tied to the expo.
“I’ve seen no information indicating any kind of slowdown in that construction,” he said. “People are generally being screened and more precautions are being taken at the moment with all travelers coming from abroad, but that doesn’t mean there’s been a noticeable or significant slow down in any preparations for the expo.”
UAE puts up the cash
Even putting aside the virus fears, questions have swirled around U.S. support for Expo 2020, after it was revealed in January that the UAE had offered to pay some $60 million toward an American pavilion at the event after U.S. lawmakers and the Trump administration failed to provide funding.
A source in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity said the development underscored problems the UAE is having in garnering global interest and showed “how desperate the Emiratis” are to ensure U.S. participants.
Supporters pushed back at the characterization.
Mr. Sebright said U.S. law dating back two decades prevents direct government funding for pavilions at world fairs. Washington has not approved government-sponsored pavilions at the last two global expos.
“When it became clear [this time around] that the U.S. Congress and administration could not come through with the funding for a U.S. pavilion,” he said, “the Emiratis came forward and offered to pay for the pavilion and the U.S. State Department accepted that as a gift, without any strings attached.”
What’s more, U.S. private companies were already heavily invested in Expo 2020 outside the confines of an American pavilion, as has been the case with past world fairs. A host of American companies, including Pepsi, Cisco Systems and MasterCard, are commercial partners for the expo.
The State Department announced late last week that it has selected Thinkwell, a global design firm specializing in the creation of unique interactive exhibits at theme parks, to help produce the American pavilion. The department also said it will work with Global Ties U.S., a nonprofit, to “recruit youth ambassadors to serve as guides in the pavilion, and to program cultural performances that reflect the geographic and cultural richness of America.”
It’s not clear how many other nations are receiving funding from the UAE to participate.
An expo spokesperson said “there are a small number of cases where, for various reasons, countries’ participation in Expo is being supported. This is a matter for the governments concerned to comment on.”
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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