The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers agreed yesterday on the presentation of Malaga’s candidacy to host the 2027 International Exposition, which will be dedicated to The Urban Era: towards the sustainable city.
To this end, as reported by Moncloa, the Government has entrusted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the coordination of the preparation of the candidacy and its presentation to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), based in Paris.
For the time being, the Spanish delegate announced yesterday at the General Assembly of the BIE, held in the French capital, the intention of the Spanish Government to present Malaga’s candidacy. Once this procedure is passed, the State will have until the end of January 2022 to process the candidacy before this organism, in charge of supervising and regulating all the international exhibitions of more than three weeks of duration.
For the proper processing of the presentation of the candidacy, a National Commission will be set up with the participation of the Public Administrations and the relevant private entities, under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as announced yesterday by the Government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
“The Exhibition is a proposal for reflection on one of the main challenges facing contemporary society in the medium and long term: making population growth and urban development compatible with environmental protection and the adoption of innovative solutions that guarantee an improvement in the quality of life of city residents,” the Government stated in a press release.
This proposal ties in with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, which the Government of Spain shares. The city of Malaga, supported by the Junta de Andalucía and the Provincial Council, had expressed its aspiration to host the Expo in May 2019, through Mayor Francisco de la Torre. The objective is that the Expo serves as a “forum to exchange knowledge, experiences and solutions to make cities friendly environments for residence and coexistence”, according to the Executive.
For its part, the Government of Andalusia yesterday reiterated its support for the candidacy. “It is the time of the city of Malaga and we are convinced that it is an important bet not only for Malaga but also for Andalusia and Spain,” said the Andalusian councilor of Presidency, Elías Bendodo. “It will be an opportunity to place Malaga at the epicenter of major events of international level, so no one can doubt that this Government of Andalusia will be rowing for the candidacy to come to fruition,” he added.
At the moment, and in the absence of other cities to be presented in the month and a half remaining until the deadline, Malaga will compete with the city of Bloomington (Minnesota, USA). The vote for the venue of Expo 27, in which the 170 member states of the BIE will participate, could be held in the last quarter of 2022. According to a market study carried out by Analistas Económicos de Andalucía (Unicaja Banco Group), the Expo could generate more than 11 million visits to the Expo site (in the Bellavista area, in the Campanillas district), as well as more than 2.9 billion euros in economic benefits and close to 31,000 jobs.
