Source: Busan
Loretta Tóth
27/11/2023 06:00
Along with this, the city of Busan declared the ‘Busan Initiative’ as part of its efforts to host the 2030 Busan World Expo. The ‘Busan Initiative’ is a project to share Korea’s experiences and development know-how in resolving the climate and health crises, food and energy problems, and solutions to education and digital divides that countries around the world are experiencing today.
With the inauguration of the new government last year and the 2030 World Expo set as a national task, all of Korea's capabilities have been concentrated on attracting the 2030 Busan World Expo. Thanks to such efforts, not even a year ago Saudi Arabia, our biggest rival, had many supportive countries, but now we have reached a situation where we can challenge each other on an equal footing.
Hosting the Expo is a process of specifically persuading decision-makers from each BIE member country and gaining their support. Such efforts will be carried out in a very busy and urgent manner until November 28th of this year. The Busan Expo we envision is a solution platform for ‘how to solve the world’s problems and what alternatives each country can undertake to solve those problems.
And this way of thinking turns out to be our core strategy to attract the Expo. Such a strategy is embodied in the 'Busan Initiative', which organizes and proposes ways to cooperate in dealing with problems facing each country, such as resolving water shortage problems through seawater desalination in desert countries or solving health problems in Africa through medical technology cooperation. It is to plant the perception that supports from the Republic of Korea with a mid- to long-term perspective in mind will be more practical and helpful to all. With the world's best capabilities in all fields and a strategy that only Korea can implement, we have sufficient competitiveness.
Can you give a brief status update on the progress of the bidding for the World Expo?
Hosting the 2030 Busan World Expo was adopted as a national task by the Yoon Suk-Yeol government in May of last year, and it is finally securing great momentum and enlisting national capabilities. Busan took the first step toward turning the Expo into a national task in 2014 and succeeded in 2019 thanks to the support of Busan citizens, which included the 1 million signature movement in which 1.39 million people participated.
In June 2021, an application was submitted directly to the BIE in Paris, and the first overseas promotional activities during the pandemic were carried out in connection with the Dubai Expo Korea Week from January 14 to 20, 2022. Since the Yoon Suk-yeol government was inaugurated, the promotion of the Expo has had great momentum. Korea has given a total of 5 competitive presentations, with each having more enthusiasm each time, and during the fourth presentation on June 20, the President himself appeared as a speaker and showed Korea's strong will to attract the bid, drawing applause from BIE representatives. The official reception on June 21 was hosted by the President, the day after the fourth presentation, and was attended by a total of 250 foreign guests, including BIE representatives, proving the world's interest in and expectations for the 2030 Busan World Expo. In an on-site inspection conducted in April of this year by the BIE Enquiry Mission, Busan was recognized for its superiority in all aspects, including generating popularity for the event, transportation, accommodation, infrastructure, security, and financial guarantees, and was evaluated as a ‘city equipped with everything for hosting the Expo’ by the head of the BIE Enquiry Mission team. As the decision on the location of the Expo depends on the votes of member countries, the Korean team will act as one and share the roles to do its best to promote its bid until the end.
