Ayutthaya chosen as bid city for World Expo 2020

By Suchat Sritama

The Nation

The Cabinet yesterday picked Ayutthaya as the country's official bid city to host World Expo 2020.

Akapol Sorasuchart, presi?dent of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), said the Kingdom was the first country to approve a city officially in the race to host the mega-event.

Ayutthaya came out ahead of the other two shortlisted provinces, Chon Buri and Chiang Mai, as it is close to Bangkok and has high potential for development as a new tourism landmark after the expo. The short distance from Bangkok means it would be easy for travellers to make one-day trips to the event.

Moreover, if it won the race to host the event, the province would also enhance the capi?tal's future expansion, including the plan to build an extended mass-transit rail system, the Red Line, to Rangsit, Akapol said.

According to the study of the three shortlisted candidates, Chon Buri would already have grown further in both the tourism and industrial sectors, while Chiang Mai faced some limitations.

The TCEB chief said Ayutthaya provincial authori?ties had proposed an area of 1,500 rai (240 hectares) in Bang Sai district to host the event. Most of the site belongs to the government and is currently partially used as the Bangsai Arts and Crafts Centre found?ed by Her Majesty the Queen.

The government would need to purchase more land from pri?vate interests and expropriate many households. Expropriation costs are expect?ed to total Bt1.8 billion, he added.

Akapol said Thailand and all other candidate nations would proceed with host-city bidding to the Bureau International des Expositions within six months. The official host country will then be selected in 2014.

At this stage, the serious con?tenders to Thailand include Brazil, Turkey, Russia and Egypt, he added.

The plan is for Ayutthaya to host the World Expo from January to June 2020 under the theme "Balanced Life ... Sustainable Living". Hosting the event is expected to draw 27 million visitors from within the Kingdom and overseas.

Thailand's holding of the expo is estimated to require an investment of Bt31 billion. The event is expected to generate revenue of nearly Bt200 billion, and to boost gross domestic product by 1.3 per cent in 2020.

The Cabinet yesterday also approved a budget of Bt100 million for further communi?cations and first-tier packages related to the pre-bidding process.

Meanwhile, the TCEB yes?terday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Advertising Association of Thailand to continue commu?nication and public relations work both locally and overseas.

The move is part of the pre-bidding procedure as well as knowledge-building about the World Expo and meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) business in the country.

-- The Nation 2011-04-05

Will they have to build hotels there that will become white elephants after the event, or will people be bussed in from Bangkok?

Moreover, if it won the race to host the event, the province would also enhance the capi?tal's future expansion, including the plan to build an extended mass-transit rail system, the Red Line, to Rangsit, Akapol said.

I wouldn't wait until the outcome of the bid. Given the time it took to do the Airport link, they should start the work tomorrow, even then it would be touch and go to get it finished on time.

I'm really not sure what the benefits of World Expo are supposed to be. I was in Shanghai last year and thought I would add a day to my schedule and check out the World Expo site. There were thousands of people there, about 98% were Chinese spending a fair amount of money, my ticket was $34.00.

The main activities were queuing to go into the various National Pavillions, any country that was vaguely popular (including Thailand) had queues that would have taken more than an hour to get in.This was a week day too.

I visited Nepal, Bhutan and Khazakstan...small queues

They better fix the drainage and roads, eliminate police interference in controlling traffic and figure out how to keep water up to the dry areas so it does not look like a desert!

Will they have to build hotels there that will become white elephants after the event, or will people be bussed in from Bangkok?

High speed rail will be done by then, easy enough for people in Bangkok to travel there for an afternoon. People already do the commute on the slow trains, it will only be a 30 minute trip by 2020.