Saturday May 11, 2013
Izmir time
BY S.S. YOGA
Port of call: Sail into serene Izmir in Turkey. A Turkish city on the Aegean coast is making a bid to become a part of history.
IT’S still early days. The 2020 World Expo is seven years away but already a city in Turkey is doing its best to persuade delegates from across the world for the BIE (Bureau International des Expositions) General Assembly to pick it as the venue.
The BIE Assembly will meet in Paris next November and decide where the World Expo will be held.
Turkey’s Aegean coast is a land of sunshine, beautiful landscapes and ancient cities stretching back to the time of Homer and the Iliad. It is a leading tourist destination that welcomes millions of visitors each year. But come 2020, Izmir, the region’s capital, hopes to play a more special role, said Ambassador Murat Ersavci, Turkey’s chief delegate to the BIE.
It wants to play host to the World’s Fair (EXPO) and take its place in the roll call of distinguished cities that have hosted one of the great international exhibitions since the 19th century – the last major one being the Shanghai World.
Every EXPO, since the original London Exhibition of 1851, has put its stamp on world history and made the host city famous.
The best of these have helped pool knowledge and ideas, bringing together people from different continents and countries.
They have also stimulated art, architecture, technology and design in the building of splendid parks and national pavilions.
Each EXPO has a theme, and Izmir has chosen “Health for All”. The proposed Izmir 2020 EXPO is intended to go down as the largest-ever exhibition on health and medicine.
“Two decades ago, Turkey had a rather inadequate health service, especially outside the country’s main metropolitan areas. But over the last decade, Turkey’s health services – imaginatively combining the private and public sectors and relying on a successful social insurance scheme to finance them – have surged forward,” said Ersavci.
As a first step, it has earmarked a 275ha site for the EXPO on the coast at Inciralti, just a short distance from the city centre.
After the EXPO, the plan is to turn the site into the biggest city park in Europe.
The world-famous Anglo-Iraqi architect, Dame Zaha Hadid, has designed a breathtaking lagoon setting for the EXPO, in which sky, sea and land come together in stunning harmony.
The site and its access facilities are being designed to be environment-friendly and to have a very low carbon footprint, in keeping with the highest 21st century standards.
The world’s largest countries tend to dominate EXPOs, but Izmir wants to ensure that smaller nations – and those most in need of improved health services – can also be represented if the World’s Fair is held there in 2020.
Izmir is also a city where different religions and communities exist in harmony side by side. If the EXPO is held there, it will be the first one to be held in a Muslim country, and in a city which rejoices in its diversity.
Source:
RSS
