UAE jubilant as Dubai wins bid to host World Expo 2020
Dubai, Nov 27 (Emirates24|7): Celebrations have begun across the UAE after Dubai was voted winner of the World Expo 2020 bid at the 154th BIE General Assembly in Paris today.
"It was a hard-fought victory; we were up against strong competitors, to whom we offer our full respect and sincere wishes," said the Dubai Expo 2020 team in a tweet.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Higher Committee on Hosting the World Expo 2020 in Dubai tweeted from Paris: I would like to congratulate #UAE President, @HHShkMohd & the people of #UAE on winning Expo2020.
Dubai had come first again in Round 2 of voting with 87 votes in its favour accounting for 52.73 per cent of the total votes cast.
Ekaterinburg had come in second with 24.85 per cent of the vote.
Izmir in Turkey was elminated after getting 21.82 per cent of the vote.
It was between Ekaterinburg and Dubai which will go head-to-head in the Final Round.
Earlier, the UAE ranked first in the first round of voting to select the host city for the World Expo 2020.
As soon as the first round resuts were announced, residents poured out onto the streets in an impromptu anticipatory celebration that erupted across the UAE.
The UAE topped the list with 77 votes out of 165, making it a 47.24 per cent vote.
Second was Ekaterinburg with 39 or 23.93 per cent of the votes.
Third was Izmir with 33 or 20.25 per cent votes followed by Sao Paulo with 7.98 per cent votes.
That meant that Sao Paulo in Brazil, the fourth place candidate city, was the first to go out of the race.
Voting then began for the second round to select the host city from among the top three candidate cities - Duubai in UAE, Ekaterinburg in Russia and Izmir in Turkey.
Residents Excited
Residents of the UAE and the wider Gulf were glued to their TVs, smartphones and computers following up the exciting finale of the UAE's bid for World Expo 2020.
Social media channels were alive with twitter and Facebook posts and news website such as Emirates 24|7 were swamped with readers wanting to know the minute-by-minute reportage as the voting went live at 5:30pm today.