Staff Reporter, Gulf Today

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Friday visited Alif - The Mobility Pavilion and the Hungary Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied during the visit by  Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance;  Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Media Council; and  Sheikh Mansoor Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Speaking during the tour, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid said Expo 2020 Dubai’s focus on mobility provides an opportunity to explore how new advances in transport and travel can accelerate mankind’s progress. Innovative forms of transport are not only helping strengthen ties between different societies but also widening our civilisational horizons and creating a better future for humanity, Sheikh Mohammed said.

During his visit to the Mobility Pavilion, one of the main landmarks at Expo 2020 Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed was briefed on the main features of the Pavilion, which highlights the history of mobility in the region.

The Pavilion offers visitors an immersive, time-spanning journey through the spectrum of human movement and progress. It seeks to challenge, surprise and inspire visitors by showing them how mobility is more than just transport, encompassing the mobility of people, data, ideas and our natural environment. The Mobility Pavilion also highlights the key contributions of Arabs, starting from ancient explorations to the UAE’s contribution to space explorations through its Emirates Mars Mission and ambitious project to explore the planet Venus.

Sheikh Mohammed also visited the ‘House of Wisdom’ located within the Pavilion, which features the most celebrated figures from the Golden Age of Arab Civilisation, who have made significant contributions in the field of mobility and travel. Some of the key figures featured include Ahmad bin Majid, also known as the ‘Lion of the Sea’, a navigator and cartographer and Ibn Battuta, the renowned Muslim Berber Moroccan traveller who crisscrossed Asia, Africa and the Middle East, eventually covering nearly 120,000 km.

The final stop in the Pavilion takes visitors to a world of imagination and possibility. Here, future cities imagined by children are projected in an immersive space that explores the limitless possibilities that lay ahead for mankind.

His Highness also visited the Hungarian Pavilion located in the Jubilee area, where he was briefed on the country’s rich natural resources. Set up under the theme ‘Aqua Roots of Hungary’, the Pavilion is the first wooden structure in the Gulf region and was constructed without using a single drop of water, in line with the expo’s theme of sustainability.

The country’s Pavilion allows visitors to immerse themselves in a relaxing, healing and rehabilitative experience as the country spotlights its unique, mineral-rich thermal springs. The Pavilion also sheds light on the healing power of water and balneotherapy - the ancient treatment of ailments by bathing in thermal mineral waters. In an interactive exhibition that reveals the origins of Hungary’s thermal springs, visitors can soak up the country’s wellness and spa culture - and how it is buoying the country’s health tourism industry.

Being held for the first time in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, Expo 2020 Dubai houses the pavilions of 192 countries participating in the event as well as those of diverse organisations from across the world. The global show runs for 182 days until 31 March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Sabeel Fountains, a series of almost 40 aesthetically eye-catching drinking fountains designed to both refresh and wow visitors to the world’s biggest cultural gathering, can be found across the public spaces of the Expo 2020 site.

From one fountain designed to resemble a beautiful letterbox, complete with an embossed letter by its artist, to another that features a mini ‘natural world’, the innovative Sabeel Fountains are contemporary artistic interpretations of the traditional Emirati drinking fountain - sabeel. They reflect the country’s heritage and its spirit of hospitality, tolerance and generosity.

The initiative is a collaboration between Expo 2020 and Art Jameel that began in September 2019, with the Sabeel 2020 open call. The design contest, which received more than 100 proposals, was overseen by an internationally renowned jury, who selected and awarded two design collaboratives - UAE-based creative studio Architecture + Other Things and design team Faissal El-Malak and Alia Bin Omair.

Their designs, Water in the Green and Nahel respectively, collectively known as Signature Fountains, have been reproduced, with a total of 37 fountains throughout the public spaces of Expo 2020. Water in the Green combines robust materials with plants that highlight Expo 2020’s aim to be the most sustainable World Expo in history, while Nahel features motifs of humankind, nature and technology connecting in harmony, illustrating Expo’s subthemes of Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.

Expo 2020 also invited two contemporary artists, Nasir Nasrallah and Dana Awartani, to create iconic larger drinking fountains, known as Artistic Fountains. Nasrallah’s Letter to Water can be seen as a love letter to water, while Awartani’s The Well resembles a stone well.

Marjan Faraidooni, Chief Experience Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “Through these beautiful and innovatively designed drinking fountains, we invite visitors to take a moment to pause as they quench their thirst and consider their own connection to this most precious resource. The Sabeel Fountains also offer an unmissable opportunity for the public to discover UAE and regional design talent.”

The Sabeel Fountains invite millions of visitors to discover the centuries-old tradition of how, through public drinking fountains, Emiratis share their water with people in need. The fountains will leave a lasting impact as part of the next World Expo’s legacy, living on after Expo’s doors close as part of the human-centric future city of District 2020.

Antonia Carver, Director, Art Jameel, said: “It is exciting to see our collaboration with Expo 2020 Dubai come to fruition. Alongside our exhibitions and learning programmes at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (and soon at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah), Art Jameel has a commitment to supporting artists and creative communities through collaborative projects. Water - and water and food futures - are embedded within our curatorial threads, shaped by a number of long-term, multi-year themes that manifest in commissions, among many other initiatives.”

The Sabeel Fountains are operating with enhanced health and safety measures, including the integration of hands-free sensor taps into all of the designs instead of push buttons, and the incorporation of bottle filler taps in lieu of bubblers.

Running until 31 March 2022, Expo 2020 is inviting visitors from across the planet to join the making of a new world during a six-month celebration of human ingenuity, innovation, progress and culture.

Meanwhile, the UAE Sustainable Finance Working Group, comprised of numerous federal and local UAE regulators and exchanges chaired by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), has issued a High-Level Statement on Sustainable Finance detailing their commitment to achieving the UAE’s sustainability objectives and the recently announced Net-Zero 2050 ambition as the first country in the MENA region. The Statement was also issued on the side-lines of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), under the presidency of the United Kingdom and in partnership with Italy, wherein the UAE is a committed partner striving to safeguard the environment, drive down emissions and create lasting economic opportunity. The Statement follows on from the UAE Core Regulators’ Group which began its work in 2019. It builds upon the commitments set out in the UAE Guiding Principles on Sustainable Finance, published in 2020, which serve to guide the implementation and integration of consistent sustainable practices among the UAE’s financial entities, contributing to the health and resilience of the nation’s economy.

The UAE Sustainable Finance Working Group issuing the Statement, now operates in an expanded forum to scale up the development of sustainable finance policies in the UAE. It includes the UAE Ministry of Economy, the UAE Ministry of Finance, the Office of the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, the Central Bank of the UAE, the Securities and Commodities Authority, ADGM, the Dubai Financial Services Authority, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Dubai Financial Market, and Nasdaq Dubai.