beyondbrics

If there is silver lining to Dubai’s grand building dreams – which left the city-state with a debt mountain of $110bn when property prices crashed – it’s that it now has the region’s best infrastructure: gleaming airports, a brand-new metro and lavish hotels.

As the Gulf emirate rebounds from the slump, it is hoping these facilities will enhance its status as a commercial entrepot. In particular, it wants to persuade the world that it is the ideal location to host the World Expo in 2020, the five-yearly exposition of national pavilions, where states outline their vision for national development.

Competitors include Ayutthaya, Thailand; Ekaterinburg, Russia; Izmir, Turkey; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In the name of the seven-member United Arab Emirates, Dubai will bid to host the event at an ‘exhibition city’ next to the gigantic Dubai World Central airport, the rollout of which has been somewhat credit crunched and is so far only operating cargo flights.

Nestled miles away from central Dubai, between an industrial port and the desert, this distant locale, like much of the semi-complete projects strewn across the desert hinterland, needs the expo’s legacy of longterm development.

After the six-month expo, ‘Exhibition City’ would become a permanent commercial venue for conferences, one of the city’s main business tourism drivers.

Dubai, coming out of its downturn, is getting back into ‘big announcement’ mode – a regular occurrence during the boom, but a somewhat lesser-spotted beast since the financial crisis.

Neighbours are already at it.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, has revived grandiose plans to turn the emirate into a tourism magnet, building Louvre and Guggenheim museums.

Qatar is leading the charge, having won rights to host the 2022 World Cup.

Not content with the beautiful game, uber-rich Doha is also bidding again to host the Olympics, suggesting October 2020 to avoid the prickly problem of the Gulf’s searing summer heat.

For the world expo, Dubai hopes its credentials as a meeting point between east and west will fend off the competition.

Dubai airport is set to become one of the world’s busiest by 2015 as its existing city-centre location grows to accommodate Emirates airline’s expansion.

The next leap would come from the development of Dubai World Central’s Al Maktoum airport, which at full capacity would handle three times as many passengers as London’s Heathrow.

Dubai officials say they envisage a public-private partnership to help fund the bid.

Financing the related infrastructure will be a headache as the emirate is already having to throw limited financial resources at bond repayments, $4bn this year alone.

The average investment cost of previous expos, the last being Shanghai 2010, is $2bn-$4bn, officials say.

There may also be some diplomatic hurdles to cross.

Israel, with which the UAE has no diplomatic ties, would presumably have the right to build its own pavilion. Israelis, who would also perhaps expect to be able to visit their pavilion, are not officially allowed into Dubai.

Dubai, a pragmatic city, has previously sidestepped the issue via special arrangements for Israeli delegations at other international get-togethers.

But wholesale tourism would be an altogether bigger question, especially since it was, presumably, Mossad that was behind the assassination of a Hamas official here in 2010.

Nonetheless, Dubai’s reputation as a (usually less dramatic) meeting point for cultures work in its favour, especially as the city emerges as an important link between emerging markets.

The world expo is just the sort of grande scheme that the emirate, revitalised by soaring tourism and trade flows, would love to turn into a focal point for the next stage of growth.

Vincente Loscertales, secretary general of the global body that oversees the expos, seemed upbeat on Dubai’s chances at the secret vote in November 2013 to select a host in November.

“One member certainly approves, now we have to persuade the other 159 countries that Dubai is the place,” he said.

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