MAIN EXHIBITION OF THE WORLD

The world's largest international exhibition of the latest scientific and technical achievements WorldExpo is 167 years old. Today, many cities and countries are struggling to be the hosts of this significant and prestigious event of a global scale, which is comparable to the Olympic Games. Last year, Azerbaijan also joined this contest nominating Baku as the host of the WorldExpo-2025.

The international experience of the WorldExpo shows that the host country has many opportunities to develop tourism, encourage investments and technological innovation, promote export-oriented products and, of course, create a country brand.

A global platform

WorldExpo is a global exhibition project, which promotes the ideas of public education, innovation, progress, and international cooperation. The first world exhibition is inseparably linked to the first industrial revolution: it was initiated by Prince Albert and was held in London on May 1 - October 15, 1851. This has encouraged the French, who responded to the English challenge by holding the next world exhibition in 1855. Both events have set a tradition of holding regular world exhibitions. Since 1928, the frequency, location, rules, and other aspects related to the organization of WorldExpo have been supervised by a specially established organization called Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which supports international expositions in more than 100 member states.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the key themes of the exhibitions were devoted not only to advances in technology, but also to the discussion of global challenges. Depending on the chosen subject, the exhibitions were devoted to the progress of humankind and its place in the world, issues related to environmental protection, urbanization, space exploration, etc. Nevertheless, modern WorldExpo events still remain a symbol of scientific and technological progress and an open platform for demonstrating the most significant achievements of the host country in various fields.

The world's largest exhibition is held every five years. The last one was held in 2015 in Italy's largest city Milan under the title Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. The next exhibition, Expo-2020: Connecting Minds, Creating the Future, will be held in Dubai.

Specialized international exhibitions of a smaller scale are held in between the larger ones. In particular, the last International specialized exhibition Expo-2017 took place in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, under a theme Energy of the Future.

Kazakhstan is the first state of the post-Soviet space, which held such a prestigious international forum.

Azerbaijan is also a full member of BIE participating in WorldExpo events since 2000: in 2015, more than three million people visited the national pavilion of Azerbaijan in Milan. In the following two years, our delegation was awarded prizes for the design and content of the exhibitions held in Antalya, TR and Astana, KZ. These fora were the first steps for gaining experience of participation in exhibitions of such a level. It is likely that in eight years Azerbaijan becomes the first country in Eastern Europe and the CIS to host the World Expo-2025.

Development of human capital

In May 2017, President Ilham Aliyev sent an official application to BIE on the nomination of Baku as the host of WorldExpo-2025. The other applicants are Yekaterinburg (Russia), Osaka (Japan), and Paris (France).

The first steps in this direction were successful, and on November 14, 2017, Baku was approved as a nominee for the qualification process. A presentation covering the perspectives of the WorldExpo-2025 in Baku was held at the 162^nd session of the BIE General Assembly in Paris.

“... WorldExpo exhibitions unite the entire international community on a unique space for global discussions and cooperation. I am sure that Azerbaijan is one of the best places to organize this universal platform. Our country has been at the crossroads of Europe and Asia for centuries and now plays an instrumental role as the commercial, political, and cultural bridge between the East and the West, the North and the South. For two thousand years, the ancient Silk Road has passed through the territory of modern Azerbaijan,” said the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva in her address to the members of BIE and other guests at a reception held in mid-November 2017 in Paris.

Speaking about the advantages of organizing an international exhibition in Baku, Mrs. Aliyeva also noted other positive factors gained during the period of independent development in the last quarter of a century. These include the dynamically developing economy and social sphere, political stability and security, progress achieved in culture, sports, and tourism, rapid development of the infrastructure of Baku, the image of which harmoniously combines ancient history and modernity. Azerbaijan is a country with a rapidly growing inflow of tourists and facilitates easier entry for the nationals of more than ninety countries thanks to a flexible electronic visa issuance procedure. The other advantages of Azerbaijan include its rich cuisine, mild climate, as well as traditional hospitality.

Azerbaijan plans to hold the next WorldExpo events under a theme title Human Capital Development, Building a Better Future. This topic is important for all regional countries and is in line with the agenda of international development, especially under the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"This theme manifests the main challenge of our time: the impact of technologies and increasing connectivity on humanity. We believe that the following issues will be of great importance at the WorldExpo-2025: to look beyond technology, redirecting attention from leaders to ordinary citizens, to concentrate attention on people who are the leading force of economies, societies, and creativity. We will put forward the people, namely the human capital, which is the most powerful resource in the world, for universal discussion," said Mrs. Aliyeva adding that Baku could become the first city in the whole of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea Basin hosting the World Exhibition.

Rich experience and a new complex

According to the expert community, as well as the representatives of regional states, Azerbaijan has the necessary potential, infrastructure, and material resources to hold such a prestigious international event and can count on international support in this matter.

The prospects of WorldExpo-2025 organization in Baku and the efforts made in this direction became the subject of discussion at the presentation held at the Heydar Aliyev Centre in December 2017 for the representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan. During the presentation, Anar Alakbarov, Assistant to the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, Director of the Heydar Aliyev Centre, noted that Azerbaijan has a rich experience in holding international events. Despite the negative implications that the global economic crisis had on the economies of many oil-producing countries, Baku continues to play its active role as the organizer of various international fora. Thus, in 2019, Azerbaijan will host the European Youth Festival, in 2020 - the European Karate Championship, and the matches of the group stage of the Euro-2020.

The holding of these and many other international fora has contributed to invaluable organizational experience and helped to establish modern, efficient, and capacious infrastructure in the country: numerous hotels, sports facilities, congress halls, exhibition complexes, and other facilities that contribute to the success of high level events.

This is an extremely important point, since the organization of exhibitions such as the WorldExpo requires the host country to have enough hotel capacity. In this sense, Azerbaijan occupies one of the best positions in the region: there are about 540 hotel-type facilities in the country and about 130 of them are located in Baku. The total capacity of hotels in Baku exceeds 12 thousand beds. No doubt that if the nomination of Baku is approved, the hotel capacity will increase at least half as much.

Over the past decade, Baku has accumulated considerable experience in the construction of special facilities (Crystal Hall, Olympic Stadium, Baku Expo Center, etc.) for holding exhibitions, sports, concerts, and other global scale events.

If Baku’s nomination is approved, the existing potential will be supplemented by the construction of a large exhibition complex for the WorldExpo forum. According to Paul Foster, Executive Director of the Baku Expo-2025 Operational Secretariat, the territory intended for the construction of the exhibition complex is located in the eastern part of Baku. It is planned to start construction on a land plot of 200 hectares. The exhibition site look like an eight-pointed star symbolizing the image on the national emblem of Azerbaijan. On the same area, it is planned to carry out large-scale construction works, laying transport and other infrastructure. The territory will consist of four main zones, including the exhibition hall and the Expo Village. "After the exhibition, this territory will become a national expo park, which will become an important factor for attracting tourists in the future," said Mr. Foster adding that more than 100 countries and 18 million guests can be expected to participate at WorldExpo-2025.

Chances are good

So far, Azerbaijan has its own theme for the exhibition, has presented its existing potential, and the planned measures for the organization of the WorldExpo-2025. The event has its own website, www.bakuexpo2025.com, operational since November 2017. According to the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to BIE, Elchin Amirbayov, all available information supporting Baku’s nomination is submitted to the Bureau in Paris. In April-March 2018, the BIE assessment mission will visit Baku, and on November 18, 2018, the final selection process will take place.

What are the chances of Baku to become the winner of the selection? According to the general expert opinion, they are quite good. Thus, during the recent trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iran, they supported the nomination of Baku for holding WorldExpo-2025.

At the recent meeting of the inter-parliamentary association Italy-Azerbaijan, the nomination of our country was also supported by the chairman of the association, Italian senator Sergio Divina.

"Baku is an international city that already has a lot of experience in holding major international events. It has proved capable of hosting large international delegations and organizing their stay here at the highest level. I believe that WorldExpo-2025 will give its development additional momentum," said Deputy Secretary General of BIE Dimitri Kerkentzes. According to him, today the main task is to present to the international community your strengths convincing everyone that Baku is the most suitable place for the WorldExpo exhibition and that the theme Human Potential proposed by Azerbaijan is the best.

According to experts, holding the international exhibition in Baku will contribute to the growth of the national economy and improve the tourism potential of Azerbaijan. "The holding of WorldExpo-2025 in Baku will play an exceptional role in expanding the capabilities of local business, attracting leading world companies, new investments and building business ties to the country. It will also facilitate the inflow of tourists in Azerbaijan, which in recent years has been of great interest to tourists throughout the world", believes Elchin Amirbayov.

These estimates are fully justified by the example of the experience of neighboring Kazakhstan. The country has increased its economic growth after holding the international specialized exhibition Expo-2017 on June 10-September 10, 2017. So, according to the Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Timur Suleymenov, the level of transport services grew by 4.8%, accommodation and food services - by 4.2%, communications - by 3.3%, trade - by 3.2%.

Although the holding of WorldExpo exhibitions is quite an expensive undertaking and does not always pay off by the reception of guests and other services, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of this event for the promotion of the national brand, which ultimately contributes to the inflow of investments and expansion of business cooperation in the long-term period.