The Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) and Expo 2020 Dubai have revealed that next year’s edition of UAE Maritime Week will be held at Dubai Exhibition Centre, co-located with Expo 2020 Dubai, from December 6 to 10, 2020. Expo 2020 will be the world’s greatest show of human brilliance and achievement, with a focus on ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ with subthemes of Mobility, Opportunity and Sustainability. Both parties have affirmed their commitment to utilize the potential available to advance the march of building a safe, renewable and sustainable maritime sector in line with the economic diversification plans of Dubai and the rest of the UAE.

This came during the speech of Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, Executive Director of Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau, which took place on the sidelines of the Dubai Maritime Agenda 2019, he announced the hosting of UAE Maritime Week will be at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, co-located with Expo 2020 Dubai. Al-Ali also discussed how to increase international interest in the UAE Maritime Week, an interactive platform critical to shaping the future of an innovative, sustainable, and technology-driven global maritime industry. Maritime Week presents a world-class platform to promote the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and the industry best practices, while enhancing the local maritime sector’s attractiveness, efficiency, and competitiveness, especially after Dubai was named one of the best maritime capitals in the world in 2019. Both organizations – DMCA & Expo 2020 – stressed the contribution of the maritime community to Expo 2020 and the value that Maritime Week could bring to the countries that will participate in Expo 2020. A record 192 countries have confirmed their participation in Expo 2020, the most in the 168-year history of the event.  Expo 2020 is expected to bring AED 122.6 billion to the national economy between 2013 and 2031, according to an independent report by EY.

Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, Executive Director of Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, said: “Maritime Week has established itself as a world class global platform for knowledge exchange, best practice sharing and the building of new networks. Expo 2020’s theme of ‘connecting minds, creating the future’ is all about making new connections and demonstrating the power of collaboration to advance progress in opportunity, mobility and sustainability. DMCA and Maritime Week bring these to life through a series of activities, especially in a critical economic sector to the UAE and so many countries participating in Expo 2020.”

The announcement aligned with DMCA’s commitment to strengthen its communication channel with its strategic partners from the public and private sectors, including Expo 2020 Dubai. According to the latest industry figures, the sector now accounts for 7 per cent of Dubai’s gross domestic product (GDP), which represents a contribution of AED 26.9 billion.

Amer Ali, Executive Director of DMCA, said: “This collaboration marks another turning point in our efforts to strengthen our alliances with different institutions across sectors to build a globally competitive local maritime industry, especially with a total of 7,400 companies engaged in 13,000 maritime activities in Dubai, generating an impressive 76,000 jobs for the emirate’s citizens and residents.” Ali reiterated the DMCA’s commitment to positively impact the growth of the community and further increase its attractiveness to local, regional, and global investors, in line with Dubai Plan 2021 and UAE Vision 2021. The DMCA’s collaboration with Expo 2020 Dubai will open up vast opportunities to enhance UAE Maritime Week as a world-class event and a leading forum for global maritime industry leaders.

Ali added: “The maritime community plays an important role consistent with the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai, which will enhance Dubai’s leadership as a major transit point for global trade. This leads us to intensify our efforts to promote the maritime sector to be one of the pillars of the emirate’s leadership as a regional and global influential player linking international markets. This is in line with the ‘Dubai Silk Road’ strategy contained in the 50-Year Charter, which aims to build a prosperous Dubai according the vision of our wise leadership.”

Both organisations highlighted the role of UAE Maritime Week 2020 to transfer and localize knowledge, share experiences and the best global practices, and as a world class platform to host major activities and events that will further enhance Dubai’s position as a global destination for leading maritime events.