Look: Dubai presents Expo flag to Oasaka as Japanese mascot visits UAE

Dubai: With just five months to go until the next World Expo opens, the official mascot of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai on Thursday visited Expo City Dubai where the UAE hosted Expo 2020 Dubai.

The Japanese mascot Myaku Myaku, met its former counterparts at Al Wasl Plaza, where Expo City Dubai mascots Rashid, Latifa and Opti presented the flag of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) to signify the friendship and cooperation between the two World Expo host cities.

Set to run from April 13 to October 13, 2025, Expo 2025 Osaka is themed ‘Designing a Future Society for Our Lives’. Under the subtheme of ‘Empowering Lives’, the UAE Pavilion will highlight the country’s progress in innovation and research and development across healthcare, space exploration and sustainable technologies and serve as a collaborative platform for co-creating solutions that drive collective progress.

Arai Yohei, Deputy Director, Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, told Gulf News that his team was in Dubai to promote the expo in Japan.

“The UAE is quite important for us, because the Osaka Expo will be held next year after the Expo 2020 Dubai,” he pointed out.

Explaining the theme and the mascot, he said: “We brought our character Myaku-Myaku here. The theme of our Expo is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” So the theme is about life. Myaku-Myaku stands for life. He has blue and red colour, wherein blue means water, and red means the cell of the human beings.”

Yohei said the UAE’s is one of the biggest pavilions in the Osaka Expo site. “I hope many of you from the UAE will visit our expo,” he added.

Throwback time

The visit of Osaka-Kansai Expo mascot threw up an opportunity to look back at Expo 2020 Dubai’s success and its enduring legacy as Expo City Dubai, said Sholto Douglas-Home, Chief Marketing, Communications and Sales Officer, Expo City Dubai.

“Dubai’s long-term legacy planning for the World Expo and nimble approach to developing a ‘city of the future’ is driving its future growth, with the recent launch of the master plan demonstrating how the city that hosted Expo 2020 and COP28 has transformed into the new centre of Dubai’s future,” he pointed out.

Expo City offers unparalleled opportunities for businesses, investors and homeowners, accelerating sustainable growth, creating opportunities in key sectors such as trade and logistics, technology and innovation and events, and enhancing Dubai’s position as a global hub, Douglas-Home highlighted.

Immediate impact of Expo

Expo 2020 Dubai was widely regarded as a huge triumph – a spectacular six-month event with much wider economic, social and environmental and reputational benefits.

Though COVID-19 forced a one-year delay and continued to pose challenges throughout the event, he said, Expo 2020 became a blueprint for hosting a mega-event during a global health emergency and the UAE’s agile, effective response, widely praised internationally, further boosted the country’s reputation/

“Expo 2020 was cited as the biggest factor as the UAE jumped five places in the Brand Finance Global Soft Power Index 2023.”

The building blocks of success

Speaking about the building blocks of success, Douglas-Home listed the strategic location and the carefully-considered long-term planning which was meant to ensure its legacy.

“The site was earmarked as part of Dubai’s wider urban development strategy, within an hour’s drive from Dubai and Abu Dhabi International Airports and 15 minutes from both the world’s largest man-made container port at Jebel Ali and the new Al Maktoum International Airport – set to be the world’s largest airport when fully operational,” he recalled.

For Dubai, Douglas-Home said, the World Expo was part of the strategy rather than a strategy being built around the Expo. “The organisers were clear they were building a city of the future, a people-first community, supported by the latest design and technology that would, for the first six months of its life, host a World Expo,” recalled Home.”

With the luxury of a blank canvas – a 424-hectare area of undeveloped desert ready to be moulded into a dynamic destination within a young, growing city – every aspect of the original master plan was designed with due consideration to its after-life and with a defined strategy for re-use

Home highlighted the bold, ambitious master plan as a testament to the long-term vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

He said the recently announced plans position Expo City as the new centre of Dubai’s future, linking Dubai with Abu Dhabi and offering incredible connectivity to global markets with its links to international airports and the port as part of Dubai Logistics Corridor.

“With the expanding Dubai Exhibition Centre at its doorstep, this new urban residential and business destination that is a critical hub on the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan and a home for key sectors driving the delivery of the Dubai Economic Agenda (D33),” he pointed out.

Driving future growth

Moreover, he said, the Expo City Dubai’s expansion plans add value to its existing venues, incredible facilities and surrounding infrastructure, which, together with Dubai’s ever-increasing international profile, will boost domestic and international business and derive value for years to come:

Expo City serves as an international gateway for the exhibitions, events and business services sectors, capitalising on its proximity to the expanding Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC) and offering an array of event venues for hire, he pointed out.

“Tenants – from SMEs to multinationals – are leasing office space to take advantage of the city’s commercial opportunities, attracted by its competitive free zone and licensing environment, as well as its infrastructure, strategic location and collaborative ecosystem. Sales of its residential properties are soaring as buyers recognise the opportunity and growth potential of the area. Just this week, Expo City announced the launch of Sidr Residences, a centrally located, three-tower development of one- to four-bedroom apartments priced from Dh 1.88 million,” Home highlighted.

Other measures of success

He said the impact of a World Expo is not purely economic, with Expo 2020, and now Expo City, offering significant benefits in the environmental and social realms – changing perceptions, upskilling, and enriching knowledge.

“Leveraging its position as an established convener and leading voice in sustainable urban development, Expo City’s annual flagship Cities in Action Forum will return in February 2025 and the city will host the 2025 Asia Pacific Cities Summit (2025APCS) and Mayors’ Forum in October 2025. The city’s Urban Lab – an open, innovation-driven, city-wide testbed – is inviting innovators, entrepreneurs and technology companies worldwide to share their solutions to urban challenges, bringing them to the city where they can be deployed, tested and evaluated in a real-world environment,” he explained.

According to Home, successful Expo 2020 Dubai programmes continue and evolve. For example, the Expo School Programme is inspiring the next generation while the Expo Live Innovation Programme has transformed into the Expo City Dubai Foundation – a non-profit entity that connects people, ideas and resources in pursuit of a sustainable and inspiring future.

“Expo 2020’s robust sustainability strategy remains a key pillar underpinning all decisions at Expo City Dubai, leading to a bold decarbonisation roadmap that serves as a beacon for sustainable cities of the future. Signature pavilions designed as long-lasting cultural attractions ensure they continued to educate and inspire,” he added.