2023-11-28 20:27:32
Another cultural victory for Saudi Arabia. It is Riyadh which will host the 2030 Universal Exhibition, the International Exhibition Bureau (BIE) announced this Tuesday, November 28, the Saudi capital having far outstripped Busan (South Korea) and Rome in this election.
The Saudi capital crushed the results, winning 119 votes, compared to 29 for Busan and 17 for Rome, easily two-thirds of the 165 votes required, according to the BIE results. When the results were announced, cries of joy resounded within the large Saudi delegation.
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“We are immensely proud of this result,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, adding that it was “an expression of the confidence of the international community in what we have to offer , and we are committed to meeting expectations.” The latter also welcomed the fact that the organization of the exhibition coincides with Vision 2030, the program for the transformation and diversification of the country’s activities and its activities in order to move away from its sole oil revenue.
A guarantee of prestige
The three candidate cities all prided themselves on carrying out green projects, with high technological value, to win the organization of the Expo, an event which attracts millions of visitors, and had launched intense lobbying campaigns in recent years. last months.
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During the presentation of the files in June in Paris, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Ben Salman, the South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and the President of the Italian Council Giorgia Meloni were present.
This victory for Riyadh went down quite badly for Italy. Ambassador Giampiero Massolo, president of the Rome-2030 Promoting Committee, reacted sharply to Riyadh’s designation, criticizing the “mercantile and transactional approach” which, according to him, governed the election. “It’s no longer a content battle or a competition between projects,” he said.
“Large-scale greenwashing”
SI the Saudi candidacy boasts “world-class natural landscapes” and “the first carbon-negative exposure”, in a country that is among the world’s leading oil producers and one of the leading emitters of greenhouse gases per capita , however, it attracted numerous criticisms.
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Fifteen human rights NGOs called on the IBE last Tuesday to “not vote” for Riyadh because of its “terrible” human rights record. For sociologist Patrick le Galès, research director at CNRS, the French center for scientific research, this is “greenwashing on a large scale” and this type of event serves above all to “valorize the existing elites”.
After having – in principle – obtained the organization of the Football World Cup in 2034, Riyadh is holding another event of global significance with the 2030 Universal Exhibition.
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