Dubai Expo 2020 to boost UAE’s GDP by 5%

The World Expo 2020 in Dubai will boost the UAE’s GDP by 5%, equating to US$23.4 billion, according to Arqaam Capital (‘Arqaam’), the specialist emerging and frontier markets investment bank.

“Dubai Expo 2020 will be bigger and better than the recently concluded Milan Expo 2015, with a more pronounced effect on GDP,” said Arqaam’s managing director for research, Jaap Meijer.

“While Expo 2020 is expected to cost $9.4 billion to stage, almost double the investment of Milan Expo 2015, we will see it as an overall positive stimulus to the economy. We expect an increase of government revenues in the UAE of $2.9 billion (0.6% of GDP), given the larger scale of Expo 2020 compared to Milan 2015.

“Our research also suggests that the increase in consumption and tourism related directly to Expo 2020 will boost the UAE’s GDP by $23.4 billion, 5% of the total, almost four times the value of public investments.”

World Expo 2020 will be staged in Dubai South, Jebel Ali, on a specially designated site spanning some 438,000 square metres making it 10% larger than the area covered by Milan Expo 2015.

The six-month long event, which is themed ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and will commence on October 20, 2020, is expected to host 25 million visits with international visitors representing 70 percent of the total making Expo 2020 Dubai the most internationally diverse World Expo in history.

More than 277,000 jobs will be generated as a result of the event, most of which will be tourism industry related.

Milan Expo 2015, which was themed ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’, concluded on October 31 having attracted around 20 million visitors and generating around 200,000 jobs.

The event’s impact on the tourism sector has been valued at around €10 billion ($11.16 billion) by researchers at Bocconi University for the Milan Chamber of Commerce and Expo Milan 2015.