Time to turn a failure into a future asset
Published: 29 Nov. 2023, 20:16
Busan has lost its bid to host the 2030 World Expo. In the vote on Wednesday by 182 member countries of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) — the intergovernmental organization in charge of overseeing and regulating World Expositions — Busan received 29 votes while Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh got 119 votes. After Riyadh acquired more than two-thirds of the votes, Seoul’s strategy to extend the contest to a runoff voting turned out to be in vain. Given the national hope for a come-from-behind victory, disappointment runs deep. President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized for the overwhelming defeat in the competition to host the international event.
As the victor is determined by a secret ballot, victory is hard to predict. And yet, the shabby score shows a critical lack of information on the side of our government. The government presented a scenario where Busan was behind by a gap of less than 10 votes in the first round. But the atmosphere in Paris was gloomy enough to hope for a miracle. We wonder if the government really made an objective judgment of the situation. Some critics pointed to the omission of Busan in the final promotion video.
The bid for the 2030 Expo started in 2019 after the Moon Jae-in administration designated it as a national project. The following Yoon administration set up a joint private-public committee to host the Expo in July 2022, two months after the launch of the government. But in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has led the campaign on a national level since 2021 with the completion of the first phase of the Neom project and the hosting of the Winter Asian Games in 2029, followed by the Expo in 2030 and the World Cup and the Summer Asiad in 2034. The crown prince took deliberate steps one by one to reinvent Saudi Arabia, with massive and attractive post-oil projects and eventually succeed the seat of the monarch.
Despite the failed bid for the Expo, the 17-month-long effort by the government and the private sector produced positive results, including the promotion of Korea’s national brand and the augmentation of Busan’s competitiveness as a city, as exemplified by its rise to the 15th rank in the global Smart Centers Index (SCI) among 77 major cities around the world. Only Singapore and Hong Kong are ahead of Busan in the Asian theater. The diplomatic efforts the government made to make up for the weakness from late preparations also will help cement Korea’s networks with Africa and South America, in particular. Members of the bid committee met with 3,470 global leaders over the past 500 days.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry appreciated heads of the top six business groups for expanding the global horizon of Korea Inc. History is full of cases where a failure serves as a good medicine later. The government must first reflect on what went wrong from the start and devise a better strategy for a better future of the country.
As the victor is determined by a secret ballot, victory is hard to predict. And yet, the shabby score shows a critical lack of information on the side of our government. The government presented a scenario where Busan was behind by a gap of less than 10 votes in the first round. But the atmosphere in Paris was gloomy enough to hope for a miracle. We wonder if the government really made an objective judgment of the situation. Some critics pointed to the omission of Busan in the final promotion video.
The bid for the 2030 Expo started in 2019 after the Moon Jae-in administration designated it as a national project. The following Yoon administration set up a joint private-public committee to host the Expo in July 2022, two months after the launch of the government. But in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has led the campaign on a national level since 2021 with the completion of the first phase of the Neom project and the hosting of the Winter Asian Games in 2029, followed by the Expo in 2030 and the World Cup and the Summer Asiad in 2034. The crown prince took deliberate steps one by one to reinvent Saudi Arabia, with massive and attractive post-oil projects and eventually succeed the seat of the monarch.
Despite the failed bid for the Expo, the 17-month-long effort by the government and the private sector produced positive results, including the promotion of Korea’s national brand and the augmentation of Busan’s competitiveness as a city, as exemplified by its rise to the 15th rank in the global Smart Centers Index (SCI) among 77 major cities around the world. Only Singapore and Hong Kong are ahead of Busan in the Asian theater. The diplomatic efforts the government made to make up for the weakness from late preparations also will help cement Korea’s networks with Africa and South America, in particular. Members of the bid committee met with 3,470 global leaders over the past 500 days.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry appreciated heads of the top six business groups for expanding the global horizon of Korea Inc. History is full of cases where a failure serves as a good medicine later. The government must first reflect on what went wrong from the start and devise a better strategy for a better future of the country.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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