The history of the Universal Exhibition begins in 1851 in London and it can be defined as one of the most prominent international events. As we recently learned, due to the 2015 Milan Expo, it takes place every five years, it lasts six months and it focuses on a universal theme of general interest.
This year’s theme for the 2020 Expo in Dubai is Connecting Minds, Creating the Future. The creation of the future between the United Arab Emirates and Italy was sealed on the 24th November, with the National Day of Italy at the Expo.
What happened on the 24/11
The inauguration ceremony of the National Day of Italy at the Dubai Expo 2020 was opened at the Al Wasl Plaza, a symbolic place since Al Wasl in Arabic means “connection”, with the presence of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi di Maio, and the Emirati Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan.
The topics were numerous: material and immaterial cultural heritage, infrastructures, ecological transition, etc. However, special attention was given to the topic of investments.
Indeed, the agenda revealed a business briefing named “Italy is back on track: Resilience and Attractiveness”, dedicated to the Italian investments in the Arabian society and vice versa, and witnessed by quite a number of professionals of both realities.
“Our bilateral commerce with Italy approaches the $11 billion and continues to rise. One of our objectives is to highlight the cultural message of the Emirates to the world, based on values of peace, tolerance and human solidarity. We are proud to have Italy as a reliable business partner that not only shares these ideas, but it promotes them with us”, says Minister Al Nahyan.
FinTech in the Middle East
The friendly relationship and the proliferating partnerships between Italy, the Emirates and the entire MENA region are seen in the FinTech world as well.In the last five years, the Middle East has emerged as a global hub for the FinTech ecosystem, therefore, enterprises, startups and scaleups expanded in this region at quite a rapid pace, while gaining more than $100 million in the last few years, according to Forbes.
This demonstrates the high potential of expanding modefinance international operations, with a project that focuses its global growth in the MENA region. Starting from the Middle East, an extremely fertile business environment, modefinance will expand its global presence – and a widespread network closely linked to the territory – with professionals that have more than 10 years of familiarity with these markets' needs, and that are capable of helping them with their day-to-day activities, credit and financial challenges, thanks to modefinance's valuable digital solutions and a wide knowledge of data science and AI.
The Dubai Universal Exhibition is just another proof of the strong interest of Italy, Europe all together, and the Middle East in merging and mixing different cultures, and in expanding the investments and the partnerships, with a strong accent on FinTech.