Kazakhstan warned against mistakes in holding EXPO-2017

Secretary General of the International Exhibitions Bureau Vicente Loscertales warned Kazakhstan against making mistakes in holding the EXPO-2017, Tengrinews.kz reports. "There are many examples when countries lost time and made mistakes. It sometimes happens when a country wins the bid to host an EXPO but the team that prepared this work changes. This is wrong, as the whole institutional memory and time get lost. In fact the people who prepare the profile should continue this work. Of course, the team will have to be expanded at the following stages, but the key personnel has to remain," Vicente Loscertales said. Secretary General of the International Exhibitions Bureau gave examples of excellent hosts of the EXPO. "I can give an example of Shanghai, where the exhibition was held at a totally new level. The exhibition in Osaka, Japan, was held at a good level as well," he said. According to Loscertales, countries have to learn from every case of holding the EXPO, as each of them pursues several different goals during preparation of the exhibition. "From this point of view, I can give an example of the successful holding of the EXPO in Lisboa. Back than it got transformed into a city thanks to holding this event. There is an example of Seville, when Spanish government focused on leveling up the development of richer northern and poorer southern parts of the country. A high-speed train was launched. In general, the region benefited from that. This is also very good," Vicente Loscertales continued. According to the Secretary General, Kazakhstan is not only demonstrating a development pace of a young resource-rich country, but also realizes the responsibility to the global community. "The subject of the exhibition certifies that the country adheres to the "green economy" and to ideas exchange in this area. Success of the EXPO-2017 is a priority for me. I have never seen a more clearly stated and expressed vision than the one presented by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The development direction is very good and following it will lead to success," Vicente Loscertales said. Secretary General also gave several recommendations for successfully holding of the EXPO-2017. "I think that the main recommendation is to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and what to strive for. Plus a good management to make the plans a reality. I would also like to mention two important principles. I always say that EXPO is a project for citizens. Its success fully depends on involvement of people. The second principle is that all the works should be performed by the country's citizens during the preparation period," Vicente Loscertales said. By Baubek Konyrbayev