Dubai: Preparations for the Milan Exposition 2015 are on track despite delays in the past months, with expectations for the site to be ready a few days ahead of the Expo, according to Fabrizio Sala, councillor of the Region of Lombardy for business internationalisation and Expo 2015.
“We certainly had a delay due to various reasons, one of which is that the area was modified [due to] the number of countries that tried to modify their pavilion. We reached a higher investment than expected, and we managed to find areas for everyone,” Sala said.
Speaking in Dubai on Sunday, he said that Lombardy where the Expo will be held is ready to host the expected influx of 20 million visitors, and that the government has reached a break-even point financially with the project.
“The total public investment is of 1.3 billion euros [Dh5.4 billion]. This is on the construction site only because if you think of what occurs outside the site, it’s difficult to compute it as it will certainly be over six or seven billion euros,” he said.
Sala added that foreign investment has reached over one billion euros, whereas private investment reached over 380 million euros.
Discussing the impact of financial crisis in Europe on the Expo, Sala said that certain participating countries have been impacted in terms of their investments.
“It is not easy for certain countries to invest even 50 or 60 million euros on the side, and some countries decided not to participate or to have strong presence — they are just going to be present for representation,” he said.
Sala was in Dubai as part of a World Expo tour to discuss the event and raise Lombardy’s profile as a tourist destination. The delegation has already visited many cities including Barcelona, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Tokyo, and Washington, among others.
The Milan Expo 2015 is set to take place from May 1 to October 31, and is held under the theme, “Feed the Planet, Energy for Life.” The Mila Expo will feature a UAE pavilion, which Sala said was already generating a lot of interest from Italians.
