Malaga officially becomes Spain’s candidate for Expo 2027

Malaga is now officially Spain's candidate to host the Expo 2027 International Exhibition. As expected, the national Cabinet this Tuesday, 14 December, gave its support to the aspirations of the capital of the Costa del Sol to host an event of a world scope that would place it definitively on the map of the big cities.

With this latest step, the starting gun has been definitively fired to a race that the city's mayor, Francisco de la Torre, activated in May 2019. It now reaches a crucial moment with the formalisation of the candidacy, which must be processed the State, before applications to the Bureau International des Expositions to host the event close in January 2022.

"We have approved the Government's support for Malaga's candidacy as the venue for the International Exhibition to be held in 2027, for which we have entrusted the Minister of Foreign Affairs with the coordination and presentation of the candidacy," said the minister of Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez.

She said that the BIE will be informed of the intention to present the candidacy and that "a working group will be formed shortly with the different administrations that support the candidacy and also with private organisations that have decided to support Malaga's bid to host this event."

At the moment, the only confirmed rival to host Expo 2027 is the American city of Bloomington, in the state of Minnesota, although it is foreseeable that in the next few weeks, some others may emerge.

Sustainable development

Malaga's commitment would focus on sustainable development objectives under the slogan 'The Urban Era: towards the sustainable city', while the North American proposal would focus on health.

The selection of the host venue, in which the 170 member states of the BIE vote, does not yet have a finalised date, but it points to being in the last quarter of 2022.

31,000 jobs

Until then, diplomacy will play its part to bring an event to Malaga that would generate an economic impact of more than 2.9 billion euros in the province and that could create some 31,000 jobs, according to a market study carried out by Analistas Económica de Andalucía (Grupo Unicaja Bank).

The site that would host the exhibition occupies a space of some 820,000 square metres in the Buenavista area (Campanillas), south of the Freight Transportation Centre of the city. The bid contemplates the creation of an enclosure with a series of pavilions devoted to sustainability, development and innovation, as well as other facilities such as a theatre, conference room, restaurants, nurseries, shops, viewpoints and rest areas. At the same time, 1,440 houses would be built to house the staff that would work on the venture. It would mean a total investment in infrastructure and equipment of about 840 million euros that would later have other uses.

Source: Sur in English