Anayansy Rodriguez (centre) at the UAE Pavilion during the Guatemala National Day celebrations in Expo 2020 Dubai. WAM

Staff Reporter, Gulf Today

Dr Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, on Thursday attended Guatemala’s National Day celebrations at Expo 2020 Dubai, with the participation of Anayansy Rodriguez, Guatemala’s Minister of Tourism, and a number of officials and members of the diplomatic corps from both countries.

Guatemala celebrated its National Day with traditional music and dance that can be traced back to the ancient Mayan civilisation and a message of continued international collaboration.

A captivating performance by the Guatemala National Folkloric Ballet followed the ceremony, transporting the audience to the heart of the Mayan world with traditional dances and music, including the sounds of Guatemala’s national instrument, the Marimba.

Dr Al Zeyoudi said, “Guatemala’s participation tells the story of a rich country in its cultural, touristic, and business offerings. The pavilion features innovative start-ups founded by Guatemalan entrepreneurs and the many available opportunities in the investment, energy, and agriculture fields, among others.

“We are pleased to share continuously thriving bilateral ties with Guatemala. We also look forward to exploring opportunities for further collaboration between our two countries in areas of common interest, to support one another in achieving our national priorities.”

Rodriguez stated, “Our [President, Alejandro Giammetti’s] administration has promoted cultural diplomacy, and Expo 2020 Dubai is an example of this. As of today, almost 400,000 people have visited the Guatemala Pavilion, enabling the strengthening of trade relations and cultural exchange.

She added that Guatemala is a country with 3,000 years of history, full of cultural richness, and the six months that the Guatemala Pavilion has been open have been an extraordinary opportunity to make the country known. “We live with the results for having displayed Guatemalan culture, and a first-class tourist destination and economy in Central America and were able to highlight our favourable business climate.”

Guatemala’s Minister of Tourism emphasised how the country, with its diverse natural environment and World Heritage Site status, is driving responsible tourism.

She also shared that the UAE was Guatemala’s tenth-largest export partner in 2020, and that the country expects the ranking to increase following the nation’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, highlighting the opportunities for investors.

National and Honour Days at Expo 2020 Dubai are moments to celebrate each of Expo’s 200-plus international participants, shining a light on their culture and achievements and showcasing their pavilions and programming.

FNM Group: FNM Group, the leading integrated sustainable mobility Group in Italy’s Lombardy region, is seeking investors from the UAE and the region for FILI, one of the largest urban-suburban regeneration projects of Europe.

This was revealed by the FNM Group President Andrea Gibelli during his visit to Expo 2020 Dubai recently. “We are here at the Expo in search of innovative and sustainable ideas from Dubai and this global event. We are proud to present the project, which spans over 50 kilometres from the centre of Milan to the International Airport, to investors in this part of the world. This unique project brings a new idea of mobility to the world on leading sustainable development,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Gulf Today.

“We look at Dubai as the best model and a great source of inspiration for our project. If you look at Europe, where the cities are quite old, it’s challenging to have the type of city planning that Dubai has achieved for the future generations,” he added.

When the project is completed,  Gibelli compares it with Dubai’s mobility infrastructure, “when you’re landing at the Malpensa airport in Milan compared to landing at the Dubai International Airport, the distances will be the same. And when you land in Milan, you will be commuting by the regenerated railway that rides through a forest of 800,000 real trees spanning over 50 kilometres on the Milan-Malpensa route, which is the main corridor for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.”

In addition to FILI, the FNM Group also presented H2iseO, Hydrogen Valley, an Italian hydrogen-based industrial value chain for a sustainable mobility system in Val Camonica, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Earlier this month, Ms. Claudia Maria Terzi, Lombardy Region Councillor for Transport, Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, attended Expo 2020. She said, “We feel that the Expo 2020 Dubai’s significance extends beyond the event’s duration. Bonds have been formed due to this occurrence, and they will continue in the future. We chose to attend not only to show the Lombard reality but also, and perhaps most importantly, to gather inspiration from the projects carried out in the UAE. The cornerstones of improvement are dialogue, conflict, and knowledge. As a result, Dubai is a location for us to widen our vision of the future in terms of sustainable mobility.”

The infrastructure highlights two significant projects -- Milan-Malpensa axis, a key link for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, will look like a whole new artery of green, modern and highly liveable urban scenarios; and H2iseO Hydrogen Valley, an Italian hydrogen-based industrial value chain for a sustainable mobility system in Val Camonica, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The urban-suburban project FILI to be completed at an estimated investment of 1.5 billion Euros involves projects totaling two million square metres of surface area, equal to 1,600 Olympic-size swimming pools, within the Lombardy region, and particularly along the Milan-Malpensa axis, a key link for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics. This area will look like a whole new artery of green, modern and highly liveable urban scenarios.

According to Gibelli, sustainability is the main theme, and people are the most important part. We want to make sure that even a small village has the same opportunities to connect with the main cities.

One of the most significant urban and extra-urban regeneration projects in Europe, Fili, is among the various topics on which the Councillor of the Lombardy Region intervened. “Fili is an incredible project that helps to rethink infrastructure and transportation paradigms in Lombardy, which is both a land of innovation and one of Europe’s most urbanized and anthropized regions,” she added.