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| From left, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Busan Mayor Park Hyeong-joon and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won / Newsis, Yonhap |
Prime minister, Busan mayor off to Paris to pitch nation's largest port city
By Ko Dong-hwan
The central and local governments and the private sector have teamed up to win the bid to host the World Expo 2030 in Korea's southern port city of Busan.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Busan Mayor Park Hyeong-joon will fly to Paris on Saturday to promote Busan as the ideal city to host the event. Korea is competing with Italy and Saudi Arabia in the bid.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who now serves as the chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and co-chairman of the bidding committee, will accompany the pair to assist them as one team.
The key members of the Korean representatives carry high expectations from the country as it is eager to host the event.
The Korean delegation is betting on winning as much international support as possible from the 170 member states of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) during the organization's 170th General Assembly on June 21. While the previous assembly last December was held online, the upcoming session will take place in-person in the French capital, where the BIE's headquarters is based.
"It was kind of a letdown when the first round of the presentation competition was held only online," Busan Mayor Park Hyeong-joon, who won his second term in the local elections earlier this month, said on June 16. "Now, we are really excited that we can show the city's global competitiveness as much as we can. We will give it everything we've got as the BIE's final decision on which city will host the event remains less than 18 months away."
The upcoming competition is the BIE's second round for the candidate cities of World Expo 2030. Russia's Moscow and Ukraine's Odesa, which were among the candidate cities in the first round held in December of last year, have withdrawn from the competition. Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has continued for four months, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent a letter to BIE Secretary-General Dimitri Kerkentzes on May 23 saying that the country will withdraw its candidacy.
The Busan Metropolitan Government said the main goal for the dispatched crew is securing international support for Busan to host the World Expo 2030 before the final decision is announced during the 173rd General Assembly, scheduled in late 2023.
"The new united force from the new government (under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration) will hopefully accomplish a great thing," an official from the city government's special World Expo 2030 preparation team told The Korea Times.
The candidate cities will give a 20-minute-long presentation to the BIE member states in the second round. Rome will start off the presentations, followed by Riyadh and Busan, in that order. The official said that being last is part of the city's strategy to win the competition.
The Busan mayor and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will stand on a podium in Paris to pitch the reasons why the South Korean city should host the EXPO. President Yoon is also expected to deliver a video message to the BIE member states to help push the city's bid.
Chey, will not give a speech during the assembly, but will spend his time getting acquainted with individuals on the ground and spread the city's positive image worldwide.
"He has an exceptionally extensive business network, so he will appeal to people both on his own and together with the Busan and central governments," the official said.
The Korean representatives, once in Paris, will also meet people from the Korean community in the city to host a local get-together event, encouraging them to contribute to Busan winning the competition. The representatives are scheduled to return on June 23, according to the official.
