On 18 November this year, the world will know who becomes the winning bidder to host the World Expo 2025. The announcement will be made in Paris, host city in 1925 and 1937. Three cities have been short-listed: They are (1) Ekaterinburg, a Russian city situated in the centre between Asia and Europe, (2) Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan situated along the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region and (3) Osaka, a booming Japanese city situated in Kansai region.
One hundred and forty countries are expected to participate in Expo 2025, attracting millions of visitors to the host city.
Of the three bidding countries, the likeliest not to win appears to be Japan, and not because the Asian giants lack capacity, but because Japan has already hosted the World Expo four times already.
This will leave the contest between Russia and Azerbaijan. The latter’s economy has been sluggish over recent years and there has been repeated fears expressed over Baku’s capability to afford the high costs of playing host to delegates from over 100 countries.
Azerbaijan is a relatively small neighbour of Russia with a population of 2 374 million people. The city’s facilities may therefore face a huge capacity challenge to host millions of people at once.
This, therefore, makes Ekaterinburg the favourite to win. Russia’s campaign highlights the fact that the country has participated in all the Expos since the beginning, obtaining many awards for the presented themes and pavilions. The Russian government has pulled all stops in their support for Ekaterinburg to host Expo 2025.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has been quoted saying: “If granted the right to host Expo 2025 in Ekaterinburg, the government of the Russian Federation guarantees full adhering to the provisions of the Convention on Universal Expositions, insures to provide high level of hospitality and organizational quality of the Universal Exposition 2025.”
Later in his support, the Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as follows: “Russia can hold a high-level exhibition in Ekaterinburg in 2025, if our country is entrusted with such opportunity.”
The city of Ekaterinburg is touted as a “bridge between Europe and Asia, a major hub of Science, industry and infrastructure, a largest centre for international exhibitions far from conflicts, and unique geographical, natural and recreational resources” and lastly, “one of twelve perfect cities of the world, according to UNESCO”.
The beauty about any Expo is that it brings people together. A few months ago Russia hosted the FIFA World Cup and for the entire duration of the global games focus on Russia was based on exposing the positives of the country to the outside world.
In a world that has become one global village the desire to expose any one country to the rest of the world has become of paramount importance. The people, culture, tourist-attraction places and a boost to the economy have become all too important aspects of development.
As the world’s attention goes to Paris for the important announcement in November, I say “may the worthy candidate win” for the benefit of our inter-dependent global community.
