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By Lee Hyo-sik
We have only five more months to go until 179 countries around the world vote to decide which city will host the World Expo 2030. Government officials and businesspeople have been working tirelessly to attract the international event to the southeastern port city of Busan since President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May last year.
Yoon and most of his Cabinet members will head to Paris next week to attend a meeting of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the international body in charge of overseeing the World Expo. The heads of Korea's top four business groups ― Samsung Group's Lee Jae-yong, SK Group's Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor's Chung Euisun and LG Group's Koo Kwang-mo ― will also be in the French capital to pitch for Busan.
All 179 member states are expected to attend the BIE general assembly set for next Tuesday and Wednesday, and when they meet next time in November, they will pick the host city of the World Expo 2030. On Tuesday, Korea will give a presentation on how it will organize the event and why it should earn the much-coveted right. The next day, Yoon and top business leaders will host a "lavish" reception for diplomats stationed in Paris and BIE officials.
When Korea began its bid campaign a year ago, it was considered an underdog to the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, as the oil-rich kingdom exerted immense global influence amid soaring oil prices. Saudi Arabia is still considered a frontrunner, but according to Korean diplomats and businesspeople who have traveled around the world to campaign for Busan, the gap has narrowed significantly. The other two contenders ― Italy's Rome and Ukraine's Odesa ― are said to be far behind by all measures.
With only five months left, Korea cannot afford to waste the opportunity of next week's BIE meeting to push ahead of its competitors. Among other tasks, the nation should double its efforts to win the hearts and minds of nations in the South Pacific, Africa and South America, many of which are economically dependent on China.
One may wonder what China has to do with Korea's Expo bid. It may be a surprise to many but the world's second-largest economy has reportedly been staging a "sabotage campaign" against Korea, according to intelligence sources and business officials involved with the Bid Committee for World Expo 2030 and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), which has been coordinating private-sector campaign activities.
An official recently told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity that "it has become difficult for us to make public what the bid committee and others involved in the Expo campaign are doing abroad because we are told that China tries to undo what we do."
The official added, "In the beginning of the campaign, we sought to let everyone know where we went and whom we met. But after we heard China was working against us, we are now trying to keep what we do a secret, particularly in countries where China exerts economic influence."
China, which publically declared its support for Riyadh, is expected to intensify its "anti-Korea" campaign in line with the deteriorating Sino-Korea relations over North Korea, Taiwan and other geopolitical issues. The Yoon administration has been leaning toward the United States and Japan both politically and economically while keeping its distance from China. Yoon has often criticized China's reluctance to help curb the North's nuclear and missile development programs, stressing his country has no choice but to align more closely with the U.S. and Japan.
With China reportedly standing in the way, Korea must expand its public-private partnerships by mobilizing businesspeople, the most effective "diplomats," to a much greater extent, in order to court undecided BIE member countries. Even people in the most remote corners of the world know Samsung, Hyundai Motor and LG.
Let's make Busan a venue for the World Expo 2030 and score a diplomatic win over China.
Go Korea!
The writer (leehs@koreatimes.co.kr) is business editor at The Korea Times.
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