Expo 2017 to bring Kazakhstan under global spotlight: Kazakh FM

In November, 2012 Astana, capital of Kazakhstan was selected to host the International Expo in 2017 . It will be Kazakhstan's first world's fair as well as the first in Central Asia. The celebration of the Expo 2017 will highlight the awareness of the central Asia as well as promote the economic development of Kazakhstan and the region. It will have a long time economic effect, said the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrisov in an interview with reporter from People’s Daily Online.

Kazakhstan was voted to host Expo 2017 after fierce competition.

On Nov. 22, Kazakhstan was competing with Belgium over who will hold the 2017 Expo. We had a very difficult competition with the well-developed western country, Belgium, the capital of European Union. We are a young country competing with such powerful competitor, but we are successful.

161 countries are voting at the international exhibition bureau, we got 103 votes while Belgium got 44. We won by a large majority, we are very proud of this.

Kazakhstan based its bid on a number of pillars.

First of all, the logo and topic of our exhibition of 2017 is the energy of the future, so it is about new approach to economic growth, new source of energy, new approach to ensure global economy and entire change of running your life. This is the topic we have chosen.

Secondly, we place our bid on promote our part of the world for more than 300 years; this part of world is behind the wall, to the east and to the west. No information was available to the world about this part of the world. Historically, this is one of the most important parts of the world, through which east and west can have economic communication, so our second pillar is to highlight and promote the awareness of the central Asia.

By bringing international exposure to Expo 2017, the international attention comes to this part of the world. It is important to engage with more economic opportunities, like Silk Road, the engaging with silk roads can bring so many benefits. In this case, we create an economic bridge.

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