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The New Zealand pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai will cost $ 8 million more than originally planned, after the event was postponed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, organizers say the investment, which was originally $ 53 million and is now $ 61 million, is needed to help lift New Zealand’s economy out of its post-pandemic recession.
The Expo 2020 site, which has retained its initial name despite now taking place in 2021, is taking shape in the middle of the desert on the outskirts of Dubai.
Once a desolate stretch of sand, the parcel is now an entirely new suburb for the largest city in the UAE, with some of its cornerstone structures and several rural pavilions nearing completion. Ours is one of them.
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Located in the sustainability district of the Expo site, the New Zealand pavilion is now almost 95 percent complete, the structure sits between the Spanish and Dutch pavilions, and facing the colossal disc-shaped Sustainability Pavilion, featuring “energy trees” that rotate with the sun to capture solar energy.
Despite being near completion, New Zealand’s offering may look like nothing more than a giant chest freezer for now, but “that’s the point,” New Zealand Expo 2020 Commissioner General Clayton Kimpton says during a tour. by the site in Dubai.
The works will stop soon and will begin again from April of next year, when the facade will be placed and the final conditioning will be carried out. The building was only designed to last until the end of the six-month event and will be dismantled upon completion, so the later it is completed, the more it will avoid Dubai’s sweltering summer.
The exhibition will now run from October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, with 192 participating countries and 25 million expected visitors.
Nick Grobler / Stuff
The pavilion will cost millions more than originally planned.
While the New Zealand team was one of the first to vote in favor of postponing the event, costs related to the delay, such as postponement of construction and additional salaries, meant they were awarded $ 8 million more than the government’s $ 50 billion Covid-19 recovery. background.
“My task has been to reduce the cost as much as possible,” says Kimpton.
“We had to work hard, we had to work all the numbers again. On my team, everyone who could be reassigned to another government department. Others have left without pay, some have said they will work part time. “
Kimpton says the team will meet full time again starting in February 2021.
The original government budget was already a considerable investment in the four-year project, considering that the price of the United States pavilion is about $ 85 million, and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is spending around $ 77 millions.
Kimpton says it reflects the importance of the UAE as a key trading partner for New Zealand.
Trade between the two increased by 16 percent in the past year, second only to growth in trade with Saudi Arabia.
New Zealand was one of the first countries to start work on their pavilion in May 2019. From the beginning, their goal was to educate people about what the country has to offer, beyond its beautiful landscapes.
Kimpton, speaking at the time, said research conducted in Europe and the United States showed that “people weren’t sure if we have electricity in all of our towns” or if people spoke English.
The theme of the pavilion is kaitiakitanga, the care and connection between the land and people, and was inspired by the waka taonga, receptacles made by the Maori to safeguard valuables.
It will be made from recyclable Kaynemaile architectural fabric and will move as if it had a pulse. It will also feature tributes to the Whanganui River, the first river in the world to gain personality. Since then New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has been working with the Ngā Tāngata Tiaki or the Whanganui Trust.
Nick Grobler / Stuff
Organizers say the event will be an important part of New Zealand’s post-Covid recovery.
Digital displays throughout the pavilion will show images of New Zealand and its industries. But on a Sunday afternoon in late November during Stuff’s tour, it was more about Christmas jingles from Mariah Carey and Wham !, as the construction crew erected a Christmas tree in the corner of the pavilion’s restaurant.
The newly decorated restaurant is the first for a New Zealand pavilion at a world exposition since 1972 and will be serviced by Emirates Flight Catering.
Kimpton would not be drawn to any Kiwi culinary stars attached to the project. He also declined to comment on big-name artists, saying only that “notable New Zealand creatives are doing installations.”
Kiwi choreographer Parris Goebel is the creative director of the New Zealand Expo 2020 entertainment and cultural program. The auditions were scheduled to take place for Goebel’s “Voice of Youth” show in New Zealand in April, but have been postponed and will now take place in mid-2021.
While there have been rumors that the Expo site will open early next year and host other events as a way to recoup costs, Kimpton says the New Zealand pavilion will not.
“From my perspective, we are only focused on making sure everything is ready to go on October 1st. We have no plans to hold pre-Expo events here. “
Kimpton sees the Expo as a crucial step in helping New Zealand’s post-pandemic recovery and says it is a way to re-engage with the world, as “we cannot be closed to business.”
“New Zealand has had a great response from Covid on our home front, but we have to pay all that money back. We need our exporters to do their thing while we are all safe at home, ”he says.
“It’s starting to change our mindset from caring for the sick to ensure our economy doesn’t get sick, and this is part of that solution.”
You think the event budget is justified. He made his feelings about this clear when he started the job in May 2019, saying, “You can’t just show up in a tin shed and pour a cold cup of Milo.”
