MÁLAGA – Spain has designated a city to be the venue for the 2027 International Exhibition. Furthermore, the Spanish city will compete with Bariloche (Argentina), Bloomington (US), Phuket (Thailand), and Belgrade (Serbia).
The chosen city is Málaga. The theme proposed by Málaga, “The Urban Age: Towards the Sustainable City”, will compete with the four other candidates mentioned. Málaga’s candidacy has already been submitted and the presentation took place on 9 June at the headquarters of the International Exhibition Office in Paris.
Moreover, the leadership was in the hands of the ambassador Juan José Escobar, with a special mission for the Expo Málaga. He was accompanied by Javier Burgos, representative of Spain and economic and commercial adviser to the Embassy of Spain in Paris. Jeróniomo Blasco, Málaga City Council’s general manager for Expo 2027 in Malaga, also made his appearance.
Furthermore, Expo Málaga 2027 will be a specialised exhibition similar to that of Zaragoza in 2008. However, the event will not be as universal as the one held in Seville in 1992.
The Spanish candidacy is supported by a 265-page dossier describing the city, the theme, the Expo space, and the hours. Most importantly, it also provides an estimate of the Expo’s usefulness after its celebration. In addition, estimates have been made of the visitor numbers and the economic impact on the city and the region.
To the sustainable city
The chosen theme is “The urban era: towards the sustainable city”. It is all about demographic growth and the settlement of a large part of the world’s population in cities and its consequences.
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Events with major international impact
If Málaga is chosen, the Expo will take place from June 5 to September 5 in 2027. Furthermore, it would have a major international impact. This is apparent from the collected data from the last three Expos.
Firstly, there was the Expo Zaragoza in 2008 with the theme ‘Water and sustainable development. At that time, 108 countries took part and 5.6 million visitors attended.
Then the Expo Yeosu 2012 (South Korea) was themed ‘For living oceans and coasts’ and attracted 103 participating countries and 8.2 million visitors.
And lastly, the Expo Astana 2017 (Kazakhstan) with the theme ‘The energy of the future, could count on 137 participating countries and 3.9 million visitors.
Location
The plot on which Expo 2027 Malaga is earmarked has an area of 250,000 m2. It is located in the Buenavista district (Campanillas district), which is to the west of the city.
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The theme
The Urban Age: Towards the Sustainable City’ is a proposal for reflection on one of the key challenges facing contemporary society in the medium and long term: making population growth and urban development compatible with environmental protection and applying innovative solutions that guarantee an improvement in the quality of life of the inhabitants of cities.
Furthermore, the theme links and has as a background the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030. The following objectives are highlighted in it:
- Developing resilient infrastructures
- Promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization
- Stimulating innovation
- Making cities and villages inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
- Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
- Conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas, and marine resources to achieve sustainable development
- Protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems
- Sustainable management of forests, combating desertification, and halting global degradation
- Prevent the loss of biological diversity.
The idea is that Expo Málaga 2027 will enable the exchange of knowledge, and experiences. But also very diverse solutions to turn cities into friendly residential and coexistence environments. Consequently, Málaga was chosen because the city is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, focused on innovation and culture with a strong commitment to sustainability. Therefore, that makes the southern Spanish city an ideal candidate to organise an Expo. Moreover, the hope is that during this Expo solutions will be found to meet the challenges that cities now face.
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