'Little Red Dot' dreams big at pavilion for World Expo 2025

STB to showcase the best S'pore has to offer as the event returns to Osaka after 55 years

- Walter Sim

From sweeping vistas of lush, island greenery replete with tropical birds, fish and alligators in pits to a sleek, dreamlike vision of the future, Singapore's World Expo journey has come full circle, from its first foray in Osaka, Japan, in 1970, and back there again in 2025.

The idea of Singapore as a "Little Red Dot", its people unfazed by the nation's size as they turn their hopes into reality, forms the core of the Republic's pavilion at the Osaka World Expo that will kick off in less than a year, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on April 15.

Singapore has been a firm supporter of the World Expo, a oncein-five-year event that will be hosted by Osaka from April 13 to Oct 13, 2025.

The anticipated tourism bonanza will be held on the man-made Osaka Bay island of Yumeshima, which translates as Dream Island and is where Japan is due to open its first integrated resort in 2030.

Singapore's pavilion, a vibrant red hue in the shape of an orb aptly named the Dream Sphere, bears the tag line, Where Dreams Take Shape. It sits on a 900 sq m plot of land, with a diameter of 18.5m, and stands 17m tall or about seven storeys at its highest.

Osaka Expo organisers expect 28.2 million visitors, including 3.5 million from abroad, to attend the event, which is themed Designing Future Society For Our Lives.

But the extravaganza has been plagued with bad press due to massive cost overruns, construction delays and tepid interest.