Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and the world’s fourth-richest man Bill Gates visited Expo 2020 Dubai on Thursday.
The Expo 2020 Dubai and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined hands to support grassroots innovators with the ambition to improve the lives of people across a variety of complex, fragile or marginalized humanitarian settings.
Accompanied by Director General, Expo 2020 Dubai Reem Al Hashemy, Bill Gates toured the key projects of Expo Live, the global innovation and partnership program that supports innovators who develop extraordinary low-cost solutions.
During the tour, Gates was briefed on the ‘Ideabatic’, a low-cost innovation developed by Kitty Liao of the UK which keeps vaccines and life-saving medicines fresh during long journeys to remote rural areas.
Bill Gates was impressed by ‘Desert Control’, a new technology developed by Atle Idland of Norway, to help create an agricultural revolution for arid regions.
The invention uses Liquid NonoClay (LNC), a technology that converts poor soil into fertile land, works more quickly and uses less water than conventional agricultural methods.
Gates toured the Sustainability Pavilion, which highlights technologies that consume zero energy.
Speaking to Expo TV, Gates urged the world to speed up the implementation of its commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, with the deadline just eight years away.
He also said that the world was going through a difficult stage in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and called for more efforts for a fair distribution of vaccines, despite the success achieved.
