The Diplomat
The Spanish Government will defend today before the 170th General Assembly of the Bureau of International Exhibitions (Bureau International des Expositions, BIE) the candidacy of Malaga to organize the 2027 International Exposition. The Andalusian city will compete with Minnesota (USA), Phuket (Thailand), Belgrade (Serbia) and Bariloche (Argentina) and the final decision will be made within a year.
The presentations will begin today at two o’clock in the afternoon, behind closed doors, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris in the following order: Thailand, Serbia, Spain, Argentina and the United States. To present the candidacy of Malaga, under the slogan The urban era: towards the sustainable city, Spain will have a delegation composed of eleven representatives of the Government, the Government of Andalusia, the Provincial Council and the City of Malaga, as well as technical staff of the team working on the Expo 2027 Malaga.
The presentation will be made by the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez; the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre; the president of the Provincial Council, Francisco Salado; and the ambassador on special mission for the candidacy of Expo 2027 Malaga, Juan José Escobar. It is also planned the projection of a video of support recorded by the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, for the occasion.
This will be the first of three assemblies in which Malaga’s candidacy must be defended. The next ones will be held in November 2022 and June 2023, when the winning city will be announced. In addition, a representation of BIE delegates will travel to Spain next September to see the candidacy first hand. If it is the winner, the exhibition The urban age: towards the sustainable city would be held in Malaga from June 5 to September 5, 2027.
The reason for choosing this theme, according to the government, is to raise awareness of a problem “that concerns all countries and organizations on a global scale.” “In the barely two decades that would separate this Expo from the one held in Shanghai in 2010 dedicated to the future of cities, the world population will increase by 1.6 billion inhabitants, most of whom will settle in cities,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release. “In other words, by 2050, more than three quarters of the world’s population will be living in cities and a reflection is needed on how to make population growth and sustainability compatible,” it added.
