Dubai: Preparations for the World Expo 2020, which will be held in Dubai, are progressing well, according to Helal Al Merri, CEO of the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the developer of the event’s site.

The emirate won the bid to host the six-month exhibition last November. The event will be held at Dubai Trade Centre-Jebel Ali.

“As part of the mandatory submission of the registration dossier which is required by the BIE [Bureau of International Expositions - the World Expo governing body] in late 2015, the work to that has already started…from legacy to partnerships [and] sustainability and everything else. It’s been a very good process over the last year,” Al Merri said at the Dubai International Project Management Forum in Dubai on Tuesday.

He said that Dubai is in a good position to move forward in the next six years based on the involvement of private and public entities in Expo. Site readiness activity is under way, with full-fledged construction set to start by November 2015, following an approval of the dossier from the BIE.

Projects valued at Dh30 billion will be built in Dubai to boost its infrastructure in time to host Expo 2020, Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said on Monday.

“We have spent this year validating all of our assumptions making sure that all of the things submitted in the bid dossier have been validated, have been redone to make sure we are in a strong position to move forward,” Al Merri said in his speech.

According to him, partnership talks for the Expo are already under way.

“We are definitely seeing conversations starting around partnerships. As it comes into 2015, this is another thing the business community will see…exactly where they can become involved, depending on which sector they’re in,” he said.

Expo 2020-related infrastructure will be needed beyond the event, according to Al Merri.

Dubai winning the bid to host Expo 2020 has already impacted the local economy positively. Al Merri said that certain sectors, such as construction, design, logistics and aviation, are expected to grow in the coming years.

“When you are talking about…the economic impact between now and 2020 on the UAE, in our bid dossier, we did an initial study and we looked at around Dh90 billion plus as the impact on the UAE from Expo 2020,” he said.

Expo 2020 will run from October 2020 to April 2021.