November 28, 2024

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An aerial view of Busan's World Expo location

South Korea's bid to host the World Expo in Busan envisions the event morphing into a global platform providing solutions for the pressing challenges faced by the post-pandemic world.

Under the theme of “Transforming Our World, Navigating Toward a Better Future," Busan aims to lead the global fair to take a great leap forward to become a venue of discussions needed for radical transformation like climate change, polarization and digitization.

In the past, Expo themes were typically related to boasting progress in industrial innovation. But Korea's proposed theme aims to reflect the recent shift in the priorities of nations and individuals alike to deal with the acute problems we all face.

Consequently, all sectors of the nation are working on an Expo agenda for solving international issues through radical transformation instead of gradual change.

The concept of a radical transformation has been deemed necessary for approaching such major issues as the climate crisis and navigating a post-pandemic world, which would require an overhaul of previous ways of life. Korea especially is a country that aptly represents this concept, considering its remarkable history of coming out of poverty as a developing country to quickly become one of the largest economies in the world.

Also highlighted in the agenda is the importance of harmony between humans, nature, technology, and society.

The city of Busan also collaborated with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry to launch WAVE, a solution platform that provides opportunities for people to share ideas about how to collectively achieve sustainability. It is expected to be especially helpful in reaching sustainable development goals.

Methods for sharing the platform with future host countries of the World Expo are also in discussion.

Busan is also planning to hold exhibitions at the expo featuring artificial intelligence, 6G networks, smart airports, and more innovative, futuristic technology to showcase the country’s technological prowess.

If the bid is successful, this would be Korea’s first time hosting an International Registered Exhibition following two expos in Daejeon in 1993 and Yeosu in 2012. But both events were specialized expos, which are smaller than the registered events.

The nation aims to use this prior experience to host a successful event by constructing exhibition halls, organizing communications, and supporting travel and accommodation costs.

By The Korea Herald (khnews@heraldcorp.com)