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The emirate is at the centre of Africa, Asia and Europe and is a natural global hub that can offer an excellent Expo 2020

G ulf News urges the delegates from 168 countries at the Bureau International Des Expositions ( BIE) to vote today in favour of Dubai’s application to host Expo 2020. The Dubai bid seeks to expand the Expo experience by using Expo 2020 to develop permanent global links, joining communities around the world and helping bring our divided world closer.

The city is uniquely set to benefit the global community with this innovative addition to previous Expo models, with a new emphasis summed up by the theme “Connecting minds, Creating the future”. The intention is to use the occasion of the Expo and the millions of people that it will attract to celebrate three important enablers of global development: Mobility, sustainability and opportunity; and so to have some links that will continue into the future after the Expo finishes. This important new contribution to a successful global community is in addition to supplying the best possible environment for the traditional core of all Expos — to showcase the best the world has to offer in business, technology, intellectual development and innovation. Through the decades, some of mankind’s greatest achievements have been unveiled to their global public at the expos.

Tonight in Paris, the member states of the BIE have the opportunity to award the Expo to a country in the Middle East and Arab world for the first time. This will be a fitting recognition of the UAE’s position at the middle of Asia, Africa and Europe, making it a direct flight away from six billion of the world’s total population of 7.2 billion people.

This central position is a vital part of why Dubai and the UAE can make such an important offering to the global community.

In addition, Dubai also offers the essential infrastructure that would make an Expo successful. The planned 438- hectare site will support a remarkable central piazza, which will be run in a sustainable manner, as well as lots of space for individual national pavilions.

Dubai’s position as a global transport hub means that the expected 20 million visitors will be able to get to Expo 2020 easily and find somewhere to stay while they enjoy the Expo and the UAE. The world’s business, professional, intellectual and technology communities are already using Dubai as a natural base for their conferences, exhibitions and meetings and Expo 2020 will expand on this existing familiarity.

Dubai is ready to take the Expo spirit of global cooperation to a new level. It has shown in detail how this plan can become a reality. Dubai and the UAE have made it clear how they will offer their very best to the global community if they win the right to host Expo 2020.

On this important day, Gulf News asks the member states of BIE to make their choice wisely.