Dubai to reopen world fair site
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
DUBAI, June 20 (AFP): Dubai's vast Expo 2020 site is to reopen as Expo City Dubai, a "city of the future" with housing, businesses and leisure facilities, officials said on Monday.
The development on Dubai's outskirts, purpose-built at $7 billion for the six-month Expo that finished in March, will host offices for Dubai port operator DP World and German conglomerate Siemens.
"Today, we announce the transformation of the exhibition site into Expo City Dubai, a new city that represents the most beautiful ambitions of Dubai," the emirate's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said in a statement.
"Expo City Dubai will be an environmentally friendly city, one friendly to families, to the economy, and to future generations."
Eighty per cent of the original infrastructure and buildings will remain, including the falcon-themed UAE pavilion and Al-Wasl Dome, the Expo centrepiece lit up by colourful projections.
As well as DP World and Siemens, it will house "start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises", the announcement said without giving further details.