Dubai: A team from the UAE have summited the highest peak in Africa to plant Dubai’s Expo 2020 flag and highlight the country’s bid to host the world expo.
The team, featuring Emirati Hamad Sharaf, 23, and five other climbing companions from Lebanon and Canada but based in the UAE, spent six days climbing the 5,895-metre Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
“We wanted to show our support for the bid and we thought climbing the highest mountain in Africa was symbolic of how, with passion and determination, obstacles can be overcome and challenges met. It is this spirit that has made Dubai and the UAE what they are today, and it is that spirit that makes our bid for Expo 2020 so strong,” Sharaf said.
“Hosting Expo in 2020 is hugely important for Emiratis and other UAE residents of my generation, giving us the opportunity to connect and share ideas with people from around the world,” he added.
Dubai is proposing to bid the Expo with the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” with a focus on three areas: Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity. Around 250 delegates from the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) are currently in Dubai for a two-day symposium to better understand the theme of the proposed Expo and to get to know Dubai and the UAE.
Apart from Dubai, three other cities, namely Sao Paulo in Brazil, Izmir in Turkey, and Yekaterinburg in Russia, are bidding to host the Expo in 2020.
The 167-member countries of the Expo secretariat, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), will vote on November 27 on the winning host city. The Kilimanjaro climb was supported by DP World, an Expo Bid premier supporter.
