Tajikistan to participate in Expo 2020 in Dubai

Tajikistan will participate in the Expo 2020 that will be hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Tajik “ASIA-Plus” agency reported on April 20.

Expo Dubai 2020 will open on October 20, 2020 and will run through April 10, 2021, according to Tajikistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI).

By government’s decree an organizing committee on preparations for participation in Expo Dubai 2020 has been set up. The committee is led by the first deputy prime minister.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT), CCI and some other relevant ministries and agencies have been ordered to elaborate measures to ensure proper preparation of Tajikistan for participation in Expo 2020. </s> Baku, Azerbaijan, April 20

Trend:

Tajikistan will participate in the Expo 2020, to be hosted by Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Tajik agency ASIA-Plus reported on April 20.

Expo Dubai 2020 will open October 20, 2020 and will run through April 10, 2021, according to Tajikistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI).

By government’s decree, an organizing committee for preparations to participate in Expo Dubai 2020 has been set up. The committee is led by the first deputy prime minister.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT), CCI and some other relevant ministries and agencies have been ordered to elaborate measures to ensure proper preparation of Tajikistan for participation in Expo 2020.

The main site of Expo Dubai 2020 will be a 438-hectare area located midway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The master plan, designed by the American firm HOK, is organized around a central plaza, entitled Al Wasl (meaning "the connection" in Arabic), enclosed by three large pavilions, which will be built by Al-Futtaim Carillion, each one dedicated to a sub-theme. Dubai has also been emphasizing on investments in various sectors, such as economic growth, real estate, environmental avenues and public affairs.

Dubai Expo 2020 also would see a rise in the GDP as predicted by the International Monetary Fund.

UAE selected the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”, sub-themes being Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity.

The World Expo in Dubai in 2020 will be the first to be held in the Middle East and North Africa & South Asia region (MENA & SA).

Recently, Dubai has made major investments in the real estate sector as well as introduced the world’s largest Solar Power Project, which is all set to start by Expo 2020.

Follow Trend on Telegram. Only most interesting and important news </s> Expo 2020 Dubai will be detailing its unique opportunities for travel, tourism and MICE companies from around the world to become authorised ticket resellers, at the Arabian Travel Market taking place in Dubai from 22-25 April, 2018.

The first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, Expo 2020 Dubai is expected to attract 25 million visits, 70 % of which will come from outside the UAE.

It will be the biggest event ever staged in Dubai and the UAE, already a magnet for worldwide travellers with two-thirds of the world’s population within an eight-hour flight.

Gillian Hamburger, Senior Vice President, Commercial, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “Expo 2020 will sell its tickets through both, direct and indirect channels globally, to ensure a widespread reach and welcome many million visitors.

“With a significant portion of our visitors expected to come from abroad, Expo 2020 presents a huge opportunity for travel companies to sell tickets with value-added travel and visitor services, develop their own travel packages and create one-of-a-kind, exceptional travel experiences for leisure and business travellers.”

Travel companies will also benefit from adding Expo 2020 to their portfolio of travel options, to attract new clients and offer existing customers unforgettable content, while at the same time bringing new revenue for their company.

A global celebration of creativity, innovation, humanity and world cultures, Expo 2020 will offer an exceptional experience for visitors from around the world, transporting millions to new worlds through immersive experiences that will showcase innovation, world-class architecture, captivating storytelling, live performances and much more.

According to statistics from the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Dubai welcomed 15.79 million international visitors in 2017. The tourism industry worldwide will be able to leverage the unique nature of Expo 2020, introducing this region to visitors for the first time and encouraging those en route to other destinations to break up their trip to enjoy Expo 2020.

Authorised ticket resellers will receive commissions on an incremental scale based on the number of tickets a travel company sells among all of their travel packages. The companies will also benefit from marketing support, a dedicated reseller logo, inclusion on Expo 2020’s official global reseller’s list and direct and easy access to Expo 2020’s B2B ticketing platform.

Expo 2020 Dubai is exhibiting at stand ME3110 in Hall 3 at the Arabian Travel Market taking place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Arabian Travel Market will also act as a thought leadership platform for Expo 2020, with a number of its senior spokespeople lending their expertise and opinions to industry discussions that tackle a range of topical subjects including sustainable tourism and the rise of the experiential economy.

Expo 2020 will also be part of The Travel Agents’ Academy, a series two half-day programmes of free training and networking aimed at travel agents attending ATM. Expo’s two dedicated sessions are entitled ‘Expo 2020 Dubai: An extraordinary opportunity for the tourism industry’ and will focus on collaborations with travel companies who want to become authorised ticket resellers to offer a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience for thousands of people. </s> Expo 2020 Dubai today brought together contractors, sub-contractors, project managers, regulators and partners in Dubai for the first of a series of health, safety, quality and environment (HSQE) leadership events.

The session heard from a variety of stakeholders including Expo 2020’s construction and health and safety team leaders as well as regulators Dubai Municipality and the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE).

It covered a wide selection of HSQE subjects related to the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region.

Ahmed Al Khatib, Expo 2020 Dubai’s Senior Vice President for Real Estate and Delivery, told the conference that the health and safety of all workers on the site – which now number 15,000 – was a joint responsibility.

He said: "This is about our collective commitment to do the right thing and to demonstrate leadership to all our teams to make sure the high standards Expo 2020 has set are enforced across the project."

"The scale of the challenge facing us will grow greater and it is up to all of us to meet that challenge head on and to succeed."

Tony Aikenhead, Chief Infrastructure and Delivery Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai added: "This is about providing leadership and a collective commitment to ensure that the high standards we have set at Expo 2020 are achieved. We are working very closely with all contractors and the Dubai authorities in a collaborative environment."

The conference also heard from Redha Salman, Director of Health and Safety at Dubai Municipality; Issa Al Zarouni, Director of Inspections at MOHRE; Engineer Amin Ahmed, Director of the Dubai Central Laboratory, Dubai Municipality, Alya Al Harmudi, Dubai Municipality and Lieutenant Colonel Dr Sultan Al Jamal, who heads Dubai Police’s Human Trafficking Crimes Monitoring Centre.

Dr. Sultan Al Jamal, Head of the Human Trafficking Crimes Monitoring Centre at Dubai Police said: "This is a team effort as we build on the work that we at Dubai Police have already achieved with Expo 2020 in ensuring the safety of workers on the site. This has also been done in collaboration with MOHRE, Dubai Municipality, and many others.

"We are all in this together, supporting a global event that is of such major importance to Dubai and the UAE. We are all proud to be making this contribution."

At peak, construction workers on the 4.38 sqkm site will number 35,000. Expo 2020 Dubai is on course to complete its shell and core construction a year before the World Expo opens on 20 October, 2020.

To date, more than 14.5 million work hours have been completed on the Expo 2020 site.

UAE-based companies are playing a leading role in the construction effort, including Al-Futtaim Carillion, Khansaheb, Orascom Besix, Arabtec, ALEC Engineering and Contracting, ASCG and Tristar Engineering, as well as Al Naboodah Construction.

All major design elements are complete – the last being the iconic Al Wasl Plaza, a 150-metre wide, 67.5-metre tall domed space that will be enjoyed by millions of visitors. Laing-O’Rourke will develop Al Wasl and two surrounding buildings. The development of Al Wasl Plaza will be managed by Meraas, with the steel work for the dome trellis provided by Cimolai-Rimond ME.

The three theme districts are also progressing well. External cladding work on the three theme pavilions has begun and will be completed by the end of this year. </s> Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the Expo 2020 Dubai Higher Committee signing the agreement with Indra K Nooyi, chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo (left) at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai South.

The two organisations will work together to promote sustainability and nutrition

PepsiCo has been named as the official beverage and snack partner of Expo 2020 Dubai, officials announced on Monday.

In a statement, Expo 2020 said the two organisations will work together “to inspire and educate millions on areas of critical importance including water stewardship, sustainable packaging, agriculture and nutrition".

“The increasing world population is straining the planet’s resources, generating an urgent need for more intelligent sources of nutrition, and packaging for snacks and beverages among other solutions,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of the Expo 2020 Dubai Higher Committee.

Sheikh Ahmed said that through the partnership with PepsiCo Expo “will be able to show millions of people what sustainable F&B will look like in the future, inspire more ideas, while educating visitors on our shared values towards a better world.”

Indra Nooyi, chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo, said that the company shares Expo 2020’s “belief that we must create a virtuous cycle that can sustain our way of life for the next generation and beyond”.

“Together, we will make this event one of discovery – from new foods and beverages, to new solutions to the sustainability challenges that face us today and in the years ahead,” she added.

At the Expo, PepsiCo plans to showcase a number of nutrition-driven initiatives, expanding on programmes such as ‘helloGoodness’ which will show how convenience, affordability and nutrition will come together in the future.

Additionally, PepsiCo will use its brand power to reach millions of households through cross branding, promotional contests and social media initiatives. Before and during the six-month event, Expo 2020’s logo will be used on packaging for select PepsiCo brands, including Pepsi, Lay’s and Quaker Oats.

The Dubai mega event will be the first time PepsiCo has partnered with a World Expo since the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, which was not ratified by the governing body for World Expos, the BIE.

Expo 2020 has now announced 10 Official Premier Partners and two Official Partners. Apart from PepsiCo, they comprise global brands Accenture, Cisco, DP World, Emirates Airlines, Emirates NBD, Etisalat, Nissan, SAP and Siemens. DEWA and UPS are the Official Partners named so far. </s> DUSHANBE: En route to mountainous Tajikistan's "roof of the world" lies a hastily-erected memorial to four bike tourists killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group late last month.

Roses and tulips lie scattered at the tribute - featuring a plaque inscribed in English - in the foreground of a scrubby mountain landscape.

"We express sincere condolences on behalf of all Tajik people and Tajikistan to the families and relatives of the died tourists in our country tragically and cruelly," the plaque reads.

It was here, approximately 100 kilometres south of Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, that American tourists Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, Dutch citizen Rene Wokke and Swiss citizen Markus Hummel were fatally wounded in an attack initially reported as a hit-and-run road accident.

The attack comes as a deep blow to Tajikistan, which has been trying to promote the authoritarian country as a tourism hotspot, simplifying visa bureaucracy and even declaring 2018 "the year of tourism."

Police said the gang that attacked the group of seven tourists, injuring two others, had also stabbed their victims, while a video released via IS' official media channel indicated the attackers were inspired by the Islamist group.

"It was a tragedy," 32-year-old account manager and biking enthusiast Pau Ros told AFP ahead of a seven-day cycle over Tajikistan's legendary Pamir Highway with girlfriend Mariona Miranda.

"This happens around the world now. But we are not going to change our lives because that is what these bad people would want," said Ros, who is a native of Barcelona.

Authorities have played down video evidence that appears to show five men - four of whom they say were killed resisting arrest - swearing an oath of allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

On Friday (Aug 3), Tajikistan's state prosecutor said the clip had been released "with the aim of deflecting suspicions from another terrorist organisation - the Islamic Renaissance Party", a former opposition party banned by the government in 2015.

The IRPT has refuted links to the attack, as has Iran, a country that Tajikistan has poor ties with and says provided training to a 33-year-old man called Hussein Abdusamadov, who was detained for allegedly leading the attack on the cyclists.

In a brief interview with AFP, the mother of Abdusamadov, who was shown sporting a black eye in his police photo, could not say if he had traveled to Iran but said he spoke Arabic and had worked in Russia, a migration destination for hundreds of thousands of Tajiks.

"We do not know when he came back to (Tajikistan). The police just came to our door and told us he had committed a crime," Gulchekhra Shodmonova told AFP.

Analysts have pointed to a number of reasons to doubt the official narrative linking IRPT and Iran to the attack -- chiefly a downturn in Tajikistan's relations with Iran, an intensified crackdown on the opposition since 2015 and the IS video evidence.

Mahmudjon Faizrahmon, a spokesman-in-exile for the party that has always described itself as peaceful opposition force said on Thursday that police brought his 62-year-old mother for questioning after he denied links between the party and the attack on Twitter.

In addition to Abdusamadov, Tajikistan's prosecutor says 10 people have been detained under suspicion of financing the crime and failing to supply information to police before the attack took place.

At the US embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, a simple bicycle donated by a local student provides a fitting flourish to a display honouring 29-year-old Geoghegan and Austin, whose blog Simplycycling.org was popular among other bike-the-world cyclists.

The pair whose photo stood on a table at the heart of the display described themselves as enthusiasts who fell in love with cycling in adulthood but were not above "hitching a ride when a stretch of road is dangerous or just awful."

It is uncertain how the attack from which only one tourist, a Frenchman, emerged unscathed, will affect one of the few sources of economic optimism in the poorest country to gain independence from the Soviet Union.

Tajikistan announced plans to create a "tourist police" earlier this week, but provided few details.

One representative of a Bed and Breakfast in Dushanbe told AFP that a Polish tourist who had planned on cycling the highway had flown home. </s> Accompanied by a political entourage, Zarif is due to attend the 23rd ECO Ministerial Meeting in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, announced Bahram Qassemi.

The Iranian foreign minister will also hold talks with senior Tajik officials and discuss ways to expand mutual cooperation, he added.

This is the second visit of Zarif to Tajikistan within the past few months.

In November 2017, the Iranian top diplomat visited the central Asian country as the first of its kind in the past couple of years.

Relations between the two countries took a nosedive in late December 2015 on the issue of the Islamic Movement of Tajikistan. While the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) was considered by the Tajik government as a banned party, its leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who lives in exile, was invited to an international conference in Tehran, and this outraged the Central Asian state.

Tajik authorities said despite the fact that Kabiri was accused of organizing riots in September 2015, Iran invited him to the International Conference of Islamic Unity while he was seated next to the head of Tajikistan’s state-backed Council of Islamic Ulema and other members of the official delegation from Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, informed sources say the tension between the two countries goes back to earlier times and is in connection with the assets of Babak Zanjani, the Iranian billionaire who is in jail and was earlier sentenced to death.

Many believe Zarif’s visits to Dushanbe could be a serious step to mend Iran-Tajikistan ties. </s> Dushanbe (Tajikistan) (AFP) - Russia and Tajikistan on Tuesday began joint military exercises near the Tajik-Afghan border to prepare to ward off potential Taliban attacks.

More than 10,000 troops, mostly Tajik reservists, will take part in the first such drills in the area by the ex-Soviet allies, Tajikistan's defence ministry said.

Combined forces will practice "eliminating terrorists who broke through" from Afghanistan in an imagined incursion, it said.

Some 400 soldiers and 80 pieces of Russian military equipment were deployed from a military base in Tajikistan for exercises due to last until Friday, the Russian army said.

The drills will take place just over the border from the Afghan province of Badakhshan.

Russia and Tajikistan have intensified military cooperation since US-led forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in large numbers in 2014.

This is the first time they have held exercises in the sometimes restive Tajik province of Gorno-Badakhshan, where clashes between government and rebel forces took place in 2012.

Previous exercises were held in the country's southern Khatlon province.

China has beefed up its security assistance in the country in recent times, notably building infrastructure on the 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan and holding its own drills with Tajikistan in 2016.

The border is a haven for drug traffickers and was guarded by Russian troops before they stepped back in 2005. Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer. </s> Only a two-kilometer stretch of Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan near the Farhod water reservoir still remains uncoordinated, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus on April 19.

“The stretch is located at the junction of the borders of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Uzbekistan’s Syrdarya region. There no any facilities or settlements in that area,” the source said.

According to him, the issue of that stretch would be officially solved during a state visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to Uzbekistan, which is scheduled for early Autumn 2018.

Earlier, the Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks had been stalled since February 2009 after Tajikistan rejected Uzbekistan’s proposal to give up some disputed lands to the Tajik side on condition that Tashkent will gain full control of Farhod water reservoir along the two countries border.

The first border talks between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after the three-year break took place in Dushanbe on Feb. 21-22, 2012. On April 24, 2015, officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the northern Tajik city of Khujand to discuss issues around protecting common borders in 2014. In November 2016, a working group began considering solutions to definitively outline the 16 percent of the 1,332-kilometer border still under discussion.

During the visit of Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to Dushanbe that took place on Jan. 10, 2018, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to implement visa-free regime and other border-related measures. The regulations also provide for the building of new checkpoints along the border and the opening of several bus links to connect the two nations' towns and cities.
Tajikistan announces that it will participate in the Expo 2020 in Dubai.