By IPS Correspondents
BONN, Apr 10 1998 (IPS)

Participants from developing lands already dominate a list of nearly 170 countries and international bodies that plan to participate in the Hanover Expo 2000 world exhibition, more than two years before it is scheduled to open.

Karl-Juergen Hedrich from the federal German ministry of economic cooperation (BMZ), attributes this “highly satisfying response” to the fact that the five-month Expo 2000 — opening Jun. 1, 2000 — is breaking with the past in a significant way.

“It (the Expo) is no longer simply a technological tour de force between competing industrialised nations but as a global exhibition has its focus firmly set on the future,” explained Hedrich, who is parliamentary state secretary (deputy minister) at the BMZ.

Backed by a fund of some 55 million dollars, Hedrich has been charged by the government to support and encourage developing nations to join the global forum in Hanover, under its motto ‘Humankind, Nature, Technology’.

“We want to focus on finding ways of securing a sustainable future,” added Hedrich, drawing on the action plan Agenda 21 of the Earth Summit in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Opening eight years after the Earth Summit, Expo 2000 will present a central area with 11 themes — humankind, environment, landscape, climate, basic human needs, nutrition, health, energy, mobility, the future of work and a theme based around ‘knowledge: information and communication, the future of the past and the 21st century’.

“The idea is to present clearly and entertainingly, the global problems facing all nations on earth, whilst offering new solutions for the future,” explained Peter Conze, who heads the Expo 2000 office at the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Yet another key focus of Expo 2000 will be on “projects all over the world” in which all nations are invited to offer model solutions and approaches to the central theme ‘Humankind, Nature, Technology’.

Among developing nations, Ethiopia has taken an early lead with its plans for an Expo 2000 presentation. The theme it has chosen for the global exposition is: ‘Ethiopia: The Cradle of Mankind, Adaptation to a Tropical Mountainous Environment’. The country on the Horn of Africa was in fact one of the first to submit its theme statement for Expo 2000 and confirm its participation.

According to GTZ, Ethiopia’s presentation at the Expo 2000 will focus on sustainable development, environmental protection, peaceful co-existence and cultural diversity.

The country is not in a position to invent or use cost-intensive technologies and has to rely on appropriate and adaptive solutions, says Kassahun Ayele, Ethiopia’s minister of trade and industry. At Expo 2000 it will present the risks and challenges people face in a fragile environment.

“And we will offer solutions,” he adds, writing in a newly published GTZ-backed publication. “The positive response of affected humans to correct faulty developments when ecosystems are intensively but unsustainably used will be shown in Ethiopia’s pavilion by the environmental rehabilitation efforts of Tigrayan peasants, especially women.”

Conze also singles out another exciting presentation, by Laos, the country once known as the ‘Land of a Million Elephants’, which will put the focus on its biodiversity preservation policy. The decision to participate in Expo 2000 was a logical extension of the reform programme Laos has undergone since 1986, says Khyasi Phisalath from the Laotian commerce ministry.

This could not have been taken without the technical expertise provided by the GTZ, Khyasi wrote in a contribution to a new publication in Germany, focussing on Expo 2000.

With funds from the federal German ministry of economic cooperation, the GTZ is assisting 58 countries in developing their concepts and planning their participation in Expo 2000, BMZ official Gerd Schetting told IPS. Plans are under way to provide assistance to 11 more countries, he added.

Altogether, nearly 90 developing lands and the central and eastern European countries joining Expo 2000 will do so with advice and funding channeled through GTZ by the German government.

The projects submitted for participation, said Schetting, range from the DogoDogo, a centre for street children in Tanzania, to a Jordanian government programme to preserve the country’s beautiful mountain ranges around the ancient city of Petra, de-mining projects in Mozambique, and Guatemala’s FEMID programme to alleviate the effects of natural disaster.

A special ‘acceleration tunnel’ on the exhibition grounds in Hanover will offer visitors a spectacular visual experience focusing on the theme of water. Three ‘landscapes of reflection’ will illustrate the complex interrelationship between humankind, landscape and climate.

And the ‘nine gardens of sustainability’, taking up more than half the thematic experience, will give visitors an exciting look at some of the practical solutions, visions and innovations on offer from industry, politics, science and society.

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