ByZEV STUB

Israel is preparing to present itself at the World Expo in Dubai, which begins October 1. The Foreign Ministry has issued a call for proposals from companies interested in participating in the Israeli pavilion’s exhibits.The six-month World Expo event is expected to attract some 25 million visitors from around the world and will include more than 200 booths. The Foreign Ministry will be in charge of the Israeli pavilion, which will take up 1,500 square meters.

 
The expo, which was postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, is still called Expo 2020 for marketing and branding purposes. Israel had already accepted an invitation to the event in 2019 before it signed a normalization agreement with the UAE as part of the Abraham Accords.The Expo in Dubai is a great opportunity for Israel to present its economic and tourism assets to audiences who generally cannot learn about and experience them firsthand, the ministry said.The themes of the exhibition, “Connecting Minds” and “Opportunity Mobility Sustainability,” are areas in which Israel’s expertise is recognized by countries and business communities around the world, including Arab countries, it said. More than 70% of the expo’s visitors are expected to come from outside the UAE.Promotional materials published by the Foreign Ministry showed a massive hall with 14 large LED display screens sharing information about Israel’s economy and culture, as well as a large conference room and interactive exhibits.When Dubai included Israel among the 189 countries that were invited to the expo two years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the invitation as a victory, “reflecting on-the-ground continued progress in normalization with the Arab states.”Israel-UAE economic relations are now an accepted reality, with some $270 million in trade over the past five months, according to Dubai Customs.