Major conglomerates put forth great efforts to host the event
South Korea’s port city of Busan is not the only entity to strive to host the World Expo in 2030. The country’s major conglomerates have also proactively underpinned the attempt.
Currently, Busan is competing with Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Italy’s Rome to host the global event of which economic ripple effect is expected to be almost $50 billion.
Later this year, the 170 member countries of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) will decide on which city will hold the 2030 expo.
To help Busan win the competition, for example, Samsung Electronics has gone all out, as amply demonstrated by its efforts in recent fairs and expositions.
The tech giant briskly supported the 2030 Busan World Expo during the Integrated Systems Europe 2023 in Switzerland in January and the Mobile World Congress in Spain the next month.
After trying to impress the visiting BIE representatives in Busan in April, the Seoul-based company also let the world know Busan’s passion for the expo during the Hamburg Port Anniversary in May.
LG Group has carried out advertisement campaigns in such major cities as Paris, New York, London, and Warsaw.
Leading all the efforts is SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, concurrently the chief of the Korean Chamber of Commerce, which orchestrates the corporate efforts to back the Busan expo.
In May last year, Chairman Chey became Co-Chair of the World Expo 2030 Busan Bid Committee, and since then, he has pulled out all the stops with the full-fledged support of SK affiliates.
Last week, he flew to Paris to take part in the BIE general meeting despite his ruptured Achilles tendon.
“The government is collaborating with companies and even entertainers to help Busan win the competition,” a bid committee official said.
Indeed, such famous singers as BTS, the world’s largest boy band, are honorary ambassadors of the Busan World Expo 2030.
