Dubai wins tentative approval to delay its Expo 2020 to 2021

Final vote count expected by May 29

DUBAI, April 22, (AP): A world body on Tuesday tentatively approved Dubai’s request to move its Expo 2020 world’s fair to next year over the coronavirus pandemic.

The Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions’ executive committee said its member states will vote on the proposal to move the event to Oct 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022. It expects a final vote count by May 29.

The proposal requires a twothirds approval, but given the disruption caused by the virus worldwide, it appears likely to easily pass. The bureau’s executive committee voted unanimously to back the proposal.

“I am confident when the time is right, Expo 2020 Dubai will constitute the best platform to build, with renewed optimism and hope, a better and brighter future for all,” bureau secretarygeneral Dimitri S. Kerkentzes said in a statement.

Dubai, a sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates, has bet billions of dollars on the event to rejuvenate its troubled economy.

This skyscraper-studded city won the rights to host the event in 2014. That helped boost Dubai’s crucial real-estate market and had officials hoping for more tourists in this city-state that is home to the world’s busiest airport for international travel.

Now, the pandemic has grounded flights by Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates, jeopardized global tourism and caused further panic in a realestate market already down by a third since the 2014 announcement.