Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Milano World Expo 2015 - 366 days to go

Tomorrow marks exactly one year till the commencement of Milano's World Expo 2015, where the international community will gather on the theme of "Food: Energy for Life".

Already over 150 nations have announced their participation, including Japan, UK, USA, China, and most of the developed and developing world.

Australia has participated at every Universal Exposition with its own Pavilion since Montreal Expo 67 Canada. Yet at this critical one year to go milestone being passed till Milano 2015, the Australian Government is yet to announce its decision concerning its representation.

At 400 days to go Celebrate 88 wrote to the Prime Minister's Office, asking for a response, however now more than a month later, still no response has been received.

Citing 'budgetary pressures' the Australian Government is either uninterested or not willing to commit to Milan, risking an obvious omission, not to also mention an embarrassing one.

We can only hope that the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, whose responsibility it is for Australia's representation at World Expositions, has in fact already advised the Prime Minister that Australia should be at Milan, and that we are just waiting for the announcement.

However, in another 2 months time, by 300 days to go, it may be too late to commit funding and organise a Pavilion from a logistics point of view.

At the moment, we can only hope an announcement for Australia's participation will be made soon.

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