President Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed an administrative order constituting the Philippine Organizing Committee (POC) for the Expo 2020 Dubai.
On Wednesday, Duterte signed Administrative Order 17, assigning the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary to be the chairperson, and the Commissioner-General of the POC and the Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary as vice chairpersons for Philippine participation in the Expo 2020 Dubai.
READ ALSO: PH busy planning for Expo 2020
“The participation of the Philippines in the Expo 2020 Dubai provides an excellent opportunity to further enhance the country’s presence in a global scale, and promote the country’s commercial and public interests in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia region,” the order read.
“The Expo 2020 Dubai offers a platform to foster creativity, innovation and global cooperation, which will contribute to the country’s goal of vigorously advancing science, technology and innovation as a strategy for long-term growth, consistent with the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022,” it added.
Other members of the POC include the respective Secretaries of the departments of foreign affairs, budget, labor, science and technology, and information and communications technology.
Even before the signing of the order, officials of DTI had already been planning for the country’s participation in the global event.
DTI Assistant Secretary Rosvi Gaetos and the accompanying delegation came to Dubai to hold a technical meeting with the organizing committee of the Expo 2020 Dubai.
In an exclusive interview with The Filipino Times, Gaetos revealed that the committee has insisted to give a bigger space, 3,100 square meters, for the Philippine pavilion.
The delegation had planned for a 900 square meter spot.
“The minister herself told us that a 900 square meter pavilion is too small. She said, ‘The Philippines is very important to Dubai and you know why? Because of the Filipinos who are here’,” shared Gaetos.
“The minister was very insistent and she assured us that if we encounter any problem, she and the organizing committee will be more than willing to help,” Gaetos added.
Meanwhile. Ambassador Hjayceelyn Quintana told TFT that the Expo 2020 Dubai is “very special” for Filipinos primarily because of their sheer number of overseas Filipinos in the UAE.
“To us, this is very special because we have a very sizeable community here that can participate and be involved and also showcase their talent,” Quintana said, adding that, “One thing is for sure: we will be involved in one way or another.”
Architect Royal Pineda, whose firm was awarded the contract by the Philippine government to design the pavilion based on the Expo 2020 theme, “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” told TFT that their concept “will make the world connect to the Filipinos.”
“This is actually an announcement of the Filipinos to the world,” Pineda said. “We want to make sure that we are representing more of our progressive features more than just of our history. I think it is about time we move forward and present to the world an interesting side of the Philippines,” he added.
Pineda said Filipino architects, as well as those in related fields, are welcome to make inputs.
As of Thursday, Expo 2020 Dubai confirmed that 192 countries have announced their participation in the first-of-its-kind exposition in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region which is expected to attract 25 million visitors.
READ ALSO: PH busy planning for Expo 2020
