Dubai Expo 2020 likely to be postponed until October 2021

Apr 24, 2020

Dubai has been preparing for Expo 2020 since it was chosen in 2013 to host the coveted event. Dubai wasted no time in coming up with big plans for hosting the six-month extravaganza, whose theme is “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.” The event is to bring together 192 countries from around the world to showcase the best of ingenuity, innovation, creativity and culture all in one location. 

But as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expo — originally scheduled to start Oct. 20 and run until April 10, 2021 — likely will have to wait one more year. 

An Expo 2020 spokesperson who asked not want to be identified told Al-Monitor, “Countries have asked us to consider postponement to focus their energy on dealing with COVID-19; we wanted to make sure Expo 2020 was true to the moment and addresses our shared challenges, and right now that shared challenge is the coronavirus.”

The Expo Steering Committee requested a postponement until Oct. 1, 2021, from the Bureau International des Exposition in Paris. The bureau is the intergovernmental organization in charge of overseeing and regulating world expos since 1931. Given the impossibility of holding a meeting in person to consider the matter April 21, bureau executive committee member states were asked to vote remotely, a bureau press statement said.

Following the virtual meeting, the bureau agreed to the proposal to postpone Expo 2020 Dubai, pending a final vote by the bureau’s general assembly to be held through May 29. The bureau’s convention stipulates that a change of date requires a two-thirds majority from member states.