Jakarta (VNA) - The ASEAN Secretariat has announced that it will participate in the WorldExpo2020, scheduled to take place in October next year in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Originally slated from October 20 to April 10, 2021, the event has been rescheduled from October 1 next year to the end of March 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

About 200 countries and international organisations are expected to join the WorldExpo2020, under its theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”.

Held once in every five years, this is the first ever World Expo to be held in the Middle-East, Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region since its inception in 1851.  

The last time the WorldExpo was convened in Asia was in Shanghai in 2010.  

Lee Yoong Yoong, Director for Community Affairs of ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN Commissioner-General at WorldExpo2020, highlighted that Expo2020 provides ASEAN with a credible podium to showcase its regional integration story.   

The ASEAN Secretariat looks forward to welcoming international guests and global participants to the ASEAN pavilion to learn more about the region and to better understand its diverse but yet inclusive traits, he added.

During the course of WorldExpo2020, visitors to the ASEAN Pavilion can sample understanding and knowledge of ASEAN’s rich socio-cultural diversity and experience how the region is building towards a community of opportunities through the many regional architectures and platforms of cooperation to improve the lives of its people, increase their mobility and inter-connectivity, and ensure a sustainable future.

Besides the ASEAN Secretariat, all ASEAN members are to participate in WorldExpo2020.  

Each member country will have their respective pavilion to display their national contents./.