Covid 19 coronavirus: New Zealand's Expo 2020 push in Dubai delayed by a year

What the NZ pavilion will look like. Image / Supplied

The postponement of Expo 2020 has scuppered a $50 million-plus push by New Zealand to promote itself to the world this year but the programme's head says the delay could work in this country's favour.

The world's biggest business gathering was expected to attract 25 million visitors to the massive Expo 2020 Dubai site for six months from October but participating nations have voted to delay opening for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

New Zealand had budgeted $54m for participating and the delay will add as yet unfinalised costs to the programme, but commissioner general to the expo, Clayton Kimpton, says the postponement could come at just the right time for this county - and others.

''There's going to be the world coming together with a sense of solidarity and optimism about the post-Covid world and how are we going to rebuild the global economy,'' said Kimpton, who is based in Dubai.

''Everybody is going to be coming to this thing with the same agenda. We'll be reminding the world who we are, what our unique proposition is that we're open for trade and tourism and education and investment.''

While there is no certainty the pandemic will have passed, an effective vaccine developed and shell-shocked potential visitors will be willing to travel, but Kimpton says New Zealand's revised planning is on the assumption there will be demand the event will go ahead successfully. The country has no choice but to keep on with the project, with the pavilion's shell in advanced stage, sponsors still on board and a cultural programme all but locked in.

Construction progress on the site of the Expo 2020 Dubai. Photo / Jason Oxenham

''Is there a possibility that Covid will still be impacting the world, this time next year? Possibly. If that is the case, then we need to revisit what we do at that time - we've just got to deal with the current situation,'' he says.

''Otherwise, we would think we'd end up in a state of inertia waiting to see if everything is fixed. We can't speculate on that but can on the opportunities that (expo) represents. And that's what we're responding to.''

New Zealand had leveraged expos in the past at pivotal times in its economic history. Osaka in 1970 gave the country the opportunity to promote meat exports to a wider range of countries as Britain was getting closer to Europe and an event at Shanghai in 2010 came at a good time as the world was emerging from the global financial crisis and New Zealand was bedding in its free trade pact with China.

All our major trading partners were participating at Dubai and host country the United Arab Emirates itself is New Zealand's 10th biggest trading partner taking exports of $3.9 billion a year and they are growing.

''There's an opportunity to be here together with them and to tell our story, but also the bilateral opportunity we have got all of those major trading partners in the one place.''

Dubai's Expo was expected to attract 25 million people. Image / Supplied

Kimpton said Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Minister of Trade and Export Growth David Parker had been very clear on the need for the postponement but the grounds for the original decision to participate - outlined in 2016 - were still valid.

''If anything the reasons for participating and Expo have been emphasised to a much greater degree.''

New Zealand's unique advantage?

Kimpton doesn't want to get ahead of himself or tempt fate, but New Zealand's progress so far in squashing the curve showed it could further enhance its reputation in the region and around the world.

Last March, an image of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugging a woman following the Christchurch mosque attacks, was projected on the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. A positive outcome fighting Covid-19 could elicit something similar.

''If you're seen to be a healthy country that would seem to be a huge advantage on the world stage.''

New Zealand's branding centred not only on being a clean country but also on 100 per cent food security.

''We've really got this positioning in the market that if you're buying New Zealand product, it's top shelf, it's safe, it's tasty and you know all the good things that come from that food,'' he said.

Choreographer Parris Goebel, under New Zealand's theme of Care for People and Place, Parris had developed an entertainment programme celebrating New Zealand's creativity, diversity and youth over the six-month course of Expo 2020 Dubai. There programme is now on ice but Kimpton said Goebel was still on board and the message may be further refined, depending on how New Zealand emerges from the pandemic.

''You don't want to crow too early, but I would say next year if we're able to benchmark ourselves with other countries we would want to make sure that creative brief is refreshed, to reflect what New Zealand's then position is,'' he says.

''I don't think it's going to change substantively, but we want to make sure that we're not telling a story that was yesterday but making sure we tell the story of tomorrow.''

There were a large number of New Zealand companies based in Dubai, not necessarily for the local market, but it was also the hub from which they're able to service a large portion of the world, including India.

Trade was a big aspect of the expo push but tourism would take another greater degree of prominence and attracting overseas investment would also be a key plank of the expo presence.

The bill keeps climbing

Work is going ahead on the expo site about 40 minutes out of the centre of Dubai on a patch of sand the equivalent area to 440 football pitches.

Kimpton said New Zealand would finish the building and then mothball it and protect it against heat of more than 40C. This would add to the bill.

''For a building survive two summers here you've got to put in a little bit of air conditioning and cleaning.''

Clayton Kimpton is in charge of the New Zealand's Expo 2020 programme. Photo / Dean Purcell

Local staff would be re-assigned to different roles to retain their services.

'There's been a cost around that to ensure that they've got the right isolation rooms in their accommodation. We've created an environment where the New Zealand construction team is in a bubble to ensure they don't come into contact with other people.''

He said some contracts would need to be re-negotiated and officials were still calculating the final bill to take to the Government.

Kimpton said air links would be essential for the success of the event and while many airlines are grounded right now there were signs of a recovery. Emirates had been commissioned by the New Zealand Government to run some freight flights to Dubai this month. The airline's flight catering arm was still on board to provide food during the expo.

There is also no need to change the stationery. The event will still be known as Expo 2020 Dubai which will be a saving on branding costs.