blog expo milano

The director of Itc of the Expo 2015, Enrico Frascari, stated that the final budget has not yest been approved during the Assintel (National Assoc. of Business) meeting last week.  Assintel organized this encounter with its members in order to start a collaboration between business members to be involved in the projects presented at the Expo 2015.

The Expo commanding body BIE will meet on April 30th to finalized the budget and it’s looking for tentative ideas and participating companies.  Starting next spring there will be a public bids of different projects and presentations where associations such as Assintel and Confindustria will focus in developing large projects which include tourism, services, commerce, restaurant, logistics, and other projects regarding regional economics.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Roberto Maroni, will head the new overview committee in the ‘Specialized Sector of the Coordinating Committee for the High Surveillance of Large Projects’ (Sezione Specializzata del Comitato di Coordinamento per l’Alta Sorveglianza sulle Grande Opera) which tasks include the oversight of any infiltration risks by organized crime in the Expo 2015 projects - specially construction.

The new committee will create a ‘BLACK LIST’ of companies, except those contract out, which have suspected alliances with organized crime as well as a ‘WHITE LIST’ which will list companies considered to be ’secured’ from organized crime and have transparent financial flow.

“The project is proceeding very well with registrations to the Expo 2015″ declared the Spaniard Vicente Gonzales Loscertales, the General Secretary of Bie (the international organization that manages the Universal Expositions).  In an interview in the Italian newspaper <<il Sole 24 ore>> , Loscertalbes explains “since July we have noticed a change in the perception of Expo 2015, from the start up of the company to the citizens involvement”. He continued by stating “Overall the area of Rho-Pero will give each country an opportunity to build their various size pavilions” and “develop the ‘nutrition’ theme with much flexibility.”

Though the Expo 2015 ‘concept plan’ foresaw identical pavilion for everybody, there will be tailored-made spaces “since - Bie General Secretary explains - diversity is the salt of the Expo; therefore even in Milan diverse pavilions will emerge from country to country”.  And “the construction regulations will provide the possibility that each pavilion be constructed in their own way and size”.

“The micro-project of the passage remains an important part of the project in Milan” because the environment is one of the important themes dedicated in this event which will give to Milan a botanical garden as inheritance from the Expo.

In the meantime in Rome, the Interior Minister Roberto Maroni singed a decree to institutionalize the Coordinating Committee which oversees the construction sights of the Expo 2015 in Milan, and which will only work and deal with companies nominated in the ‘White List’ in order to prevent infiltration of Mafia affilliated companies.

FAO and Expo 2015 last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the ‘Private sector action to reduce food in security’ Forum at the Caripolo Foundation. The document signed by Letizia Moratti, Mayor of Milan and the government commissioner for Expo 2015, as well as Lucio Stanca, CEO of Expo 2015 and Jacques Diouf, FAO’s General Director, lays out the foundations between the Expo 2015 and the FAO in reference to nutrition and fight against world hunger.

The Memorandum’s signing represents a new collaboration with concrete short term goals: in 90 days  a new joint commission is to be established to promote secure food/nutrition, develop international projects and create a new center of sustainable development for the Universal Exposition in Milan in 2015.

“We have worked together to obtain the FAO’s participation in the 2015 Expo but also for a center of sustainable development which the Expo will leave in inheritance. - Moratti explains - The challenge of world hunger cannot be won if everybody doesn’t participate.”  Stanca further indicates “Now there are two new large partners in Expo: the FAO in one hand and private citizens in the other. Their contribution will help enrich and develop a concrete way to become the premise of the Universal Exposition as well as during the subsequent years.”

Milan- CEO of Expo 2015 spa, Lucio Stanca, has announce today that he wont accept this years’ variable bonus. Upon ending the Expo 2015 Board meeting Stanca announced that “due to the difficulty in reaching and establishing the 2009 objectives for the Chief Executive Office, this year the CEO will not obtain part of his variable salary”.  In order words Stance will give up his 150 thousand euros bonus.

However ten of his closets collaborators have agreed to receive this years bonus which is tied to their annual objectives. It was Stanca who demonstrated to the Board that the retribution by the top mange of Expo 2015 (himself) as certified by the Audit Firm Watson Wyatt is less than 15.3% compared to the national average and 20.5% to the Milanesse average.

Tuesday meeting focused on the budget. The first 10 months of the year the managing company has accumulated a lost of about 4.9 million euros, which as Stanca stated “leads to believe that it’s a better outcome than the 11.6 million euros originally estimated”.  However it won’t be until the 18th of December during the last company’s board meeting will the final lost estimate be declared as well as the 2010 budget be announced to the press and it’s share holders.

The first golf course within the city of Milan is to be set up in the Forlanini area. The green will encompass four hectares of land, six holes and will be open to the public by the end of next year. The city’s sport councilor Alan Rizzi stated that the golf field will renovate the area between via Taverna and Via Corelli, and will also be an extra recourse for the Expo hosted by the city of Milan in 2015.

Other than receiving a yearly rental fee for the golf course, the city of Milan has also imposed to the golf course an investment of over half a million euros to reevaluate the area. The biggest benefactor, of course, will be the park and its residents.  The golf field has a strategic importance during the Expo specially it’s projected that over a million visitors will visit the city: ‘green in Milan is a fundamental recourse’.

China is preparing for next year’s EXPO and the Lombardia region is ready to go.  Shangai EXPO 2010 will be the spring board for the 2015 EXPO in Milan and its debut will be hosted in the Italian pavilion during the EXPO under the region’s stem flag from Oct. 18-31 2010.

Various activities and exhibitions will take place in the pavilion in Shagain such as an exhibition by the Direzione General del Ambiente (Italy’s Environmental Office) in synergy with Arpa; performing arts and a large section dedicated to the typical flavours of the Lombardia area. “One of our main objectives, says  Beniamino Quintieri, Italy commissioner to the Expo 2010 in Shangai, is to best represent the Milan’s Expo in 2010 and I think its success will begin here Shangai”.

A world Social Forum to be hosted in Milan during the expo in 2015. The proposal is set forth by the youth community center Leoncavallo, also known as Leonka, a non-global and environmental envisioning the appointment in 2015 which idea is to bring thousands of militant activist for the defense of the environment.

The proposal was presented by Daniele Farina, representative of the historical militant Rifondazione of Leonka,  hoping that Letizia Moratti, Mayor of Milan, will extend a helping hand and becoming an official partner of the EXPO.