Malaysia Pavilion’s Gold Award win at the BIE Day Awards Ceremony in Expo 2020 Dubai marks the country’s first gold victory since it first participated in a world expo in 1970.

The Award won was for Theme Interpretation for the Expo 2020 Dubai Official Participant Awards involving about 200 countries and organisations, hosted by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

The award category recognises the Pavilion’s interpretation of the Expo 2020 Dubai’s theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ with sub-themes of ‘Sustainability’, ‘Mobility’, and ‘Opportunity’. The Pavilions are evaluated on the effectiveness of their communication to the world on their efforts to solve the urgent and pressing challenges connected to the themes.

Bearing the theme of ‘Energising Sustainability’, the Malaysia Pavilion aims to tell the story of how socio-economic progress can happen without the expense of the environment, as the people builds forward towards a sustainable future.

“We are very proud of this accolade by the Expo 2020 Dubai organisers. It reflects Malaysia’s success in telling the world of our nation’s commitment towards sustainability by maintaining our biodiversity. We hope that we have left a positive impact on our visitors to the Malaysia Pavilion to inspire change in any capacity that they can,” said Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dato’ Sri Dr. Adham Baba.

“This is also a momentous win for our great nation as Malaysia wins its first ever Gold Award at the World Expo.

“As the lead Ministry spearheading Malaysia’s participation at Expo 2020 Dubai, we extend our heartiest gratitude to everyone who have contributed to our Pavilion’s success of telling our Malaysian story, “ added Dr Adham Baba.

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia who is also Commissioner-General of Malaysia for Expo 2020 Dubai, Datuk Zainal Abidin Abu Hassan said, “This Award is a testament to the creative minds of Malaysians as we purposefully designed this Pavilion to be environmentally sustainable – with everything from the build to the sourcing of raw materials, and to its energy source. Our efforts also earned us the recognition as the first Net Zero Carbon installation at the Expo 2020 Dubai.”

Malaysia was also awarded an honourable mention for the Best Sustainable Design in the EXHIBITOR Magazine’s World Expo Awards, which saw the Austria Pavilion taking first place. This World Expo Awards recognises how pavilions leverage design, technology, presentation, and storytelling to create immersive experiences and effectively communicate compelling messages.

The awards add to the sucess of Malaysia’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai. On 30 March 2022, MalaysianPrimeMinisterTheHonourableDato’ Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob announced that Malaysia garnered a total of RM70 billion (USD 16.6 billion) in tradeandinvestmentleadsthroughoutExpo 2020 Dubai.

Expo 2020 Dubai recently concluded on 31 March 2022 after six months up and running since 1 October 2021. The quinquennial historic event is recognised as the third most attended event in the world, following the FIFA World Cup and Olympics. The next World Expo will be hosted in Osaka, Japan in 2025.