Dubai: It’s only been a year from when Dubai clinched the World Expo bid and yet different communities said they are already feeling increased activity and opportunities in the city as an indirect result of the would-be world fair six years from now.

Jobseekers from different countries have been gravitating towards Dubai since the emirate won the bid on November 27 last year. This has been the constant development impacting their community for the past year, which is a win-win situation for everyone, Dr Faisal Ikram, General-Secretary of the Pakistan Association Dubai (Pad), said.

“From the Association’s side, obviously, I think what we experience is that there are more people coming in for jobs and there’s been really a surge in inquiries coming through to us. And we have also a lot of companies that are advertising jobs through our portals that has definitely gone up in terms of the number of jobs coming up in the market,” Dr Ikram told Gulf News.

“That’s definitely a reflection of activities related to the Expo 2020 knowing that there’s gonna be a surge in jobs in the aviation industry, in the tourism industry, construction, and management. That will have a direct impact on the community and open up opportunities for newcomers,” he added.

More than 275,000 jobs are likely to be created across the region over the next six years according to Expo organisers. These will service the Expo 2020 across different sectors including tourism, aviation, real estate, construction, transportation, logistics and retail.

But developments indirectly linked to the Expo are also creating jobs that directly benefit the community in terms of career opportunities.

“We’re obviously seeing a lot of new projects being launched. Whether they are directly linked to the Expo2020 or not is difficult to say, or whether it’s just coincidence that the real estate industry is booming [we cannot say],” Dr Ikram said.

“From the community perspective, we are definitely optimistic that it is going to increase the opportunities for our community and Pakistan has always been historically supportive to the UAE and will be supportive to the local community here,” he added.

Last year when Dubai was still bidding for the Expo, Pad expressed its oneness with Dubai’s bid through a solidarity walk attended by more than 5,000 Pakistani expatriates.

“We held our solidarity walk with the UAE last year which reflected back to our historic relationship which we share between Pakistan and UAE; and knowing Pakistan was the first country to recognise UAE on the map of the earth in 1971 and Pakistan supported UAE in every field.”

Dr Ikram said Expo 2020 in essence is what Dubai is now that just got bigger because social, financial, and cultural exchanges are already happening in our current setting. With the Expo, it’s just going to be on a grander – or global — scale.

“Dubai is a global village, a crossroads of cultures and civilisations here and you can see very diverse cultures merge together and all work in harmony in this part of the world. It’s the most perfect place where one can exchange cultural experiences. It’s a great idea to bring in people from all over the world and that would be a great opportunity to share each other’s culture.”

For Narain Salwani, an influential Indian resident who has lived in the UAE for 56 years, Dubai is already setting the stage for more social changes, but it is ready to take on more.

“In the social aspect, Dubai has excelled in so many fields and Expo 2020 has fuelled much progress and development which will go on in business, of course, but in other social aspects as well. And it can create special infrastructure that will not only help us for the Expo 2020 but also in the future,” Sawlani told Gulf News.

“In five years in time for the Expo, Dubai will be a better and excellent city, much better than we presently have.”

Sawlani, who has seen the country rise from sand to skyscrapers, said just one year of the Expo win as already driven optimism in his immediate circle, how much more during the Expo itself.

“Everybody [in the family] is excited to know about the Expo. This is a very good chance for Dubai to come on the world map, although it is already there because Dubai has excelled in so many things. But with this Expo, again it will further be another milestone that Dubai will create, I’m sure of that.”

The future of Dubai looks bright, too, for Gautam Patel, an Indian businessman and community leader who has been in the UAE since 1978.

“Everyone seems to be full of hopes and aspirations on being awarded the event. The community seems to be enjoying greater goodwill then before and prices have slightly gone up. The family is quite excited with the newer opportunities each member is envisaging. All in all, a tinge of buoyancy in the air,” Patel told Gulf News.

“The last Expo at Shanghai attracted almost 73 million people over the six-month period and that is a huge amount of people at any one place. The Expo also tends to give a huge scope of exchange of volunteers to cater to the vast varied nationalities who tend to attend the Expo,” he added.

But Lucy Chuang, managing director of Dubai-based Global Sino Consultancy and a leader of the Chinese community in Dubai, thinks Dubai will top her country’s achievement–it may not be in number but in its positive results.

“As China had just hosted the 2010’s Expo, we believe the Dubai Expo will further strengthen its strategic position as the hub for Chinese business community. We believe Dubai can do better,” Chuang told Gulf News.

“Everyone will benefit from the growth as it means more jobs, more opportunities, and more business. It will attract more Chinese tourist to Dubai.”

The only downside for now, everyone agreed, is that everyone has felt “a little bit of a pinch in terms of cost of living.’’ Dr Ikram said that as with anywhere, development has its own after-effects, be in rentals, utility bills or traffic on the roads. “Definitely, I think the activity in the city has gone up but at the same time there is an expense to that,” he said.