Milan's Future Tied to the Expo
Milan is changing with a project in mind, the Expo of 2015. Letizia Moratti, Mayor of Milan, discussed this issue as a guest of honor in a meeting yesterday held at Palazzo Bocconi and organized by AMSDA, the SDA Bocconi Master Alumni Association. Other participants included Alberto Grando, Dean of SDA and Bruno Pavesi, Chief Executive of Università Bocconi. The meeting was moderated by Sergio Luciano, director of the Italian magazine Economy.
"The Expo is a tool to consolidate economic, cultural, scientific and institutional relations between Italy and other countries", Letizia Moratti explained to the alumni. "It's a tool to contribute to our growth and the sustainable development of other countries. Milan has earned a large international project and chose to work towards the Expo. This choice started with the assessment that, unlike other large events such as the Olympics, the universal exposition will have more significant results for the city, even if there is less media visibility". This addition impact, the Chamber of Commerce estimates, "would be 44 billion euros" in financial terms.
Receiving the honor of such an event, which lasts six months, was not easy for the administration led by Moratti. The challenge lasted two years and Milan competed against the seasoned adversary of Izmir, Turkey. The proposal Milan made to the world, and which ended up being the winning idea, aimed at the medium- and long-term: "We visited 130 countries over a seven year-period and guaranteed one or more projects to each one. Three interconnected themes were the basis of our project: nutrition, energy and climate change".
For the city of Milan, this means an investment of 11 billion euros in connecting facilities and 4 billion for carrying out the event itself. But it also means "creating 70 thousand jobs in the years before. In a period of crisis like this one, this could represent a boom of development". It will be an Expo that, compared to others held in the past, will be unique in a new aspect: no physical landmark will be built, no imposing structure to stimulate attention (the Eiffel Tower in 1889 comes to mind), but rather it will stimulate an "intellectual landmark". "We will create a center of sustainable development in the exposition area", added Mayor Moratti, "a place that, like a pole for culture or research, can export the Expo symbol in other countries".