June 10, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s leading experts talked about the prospects of further promoting Yekaterinburg’s application for the right to host the EXPO 2020 exhibition and about the areas that need special attention during a round table discussion on Yekaterinburg in the range from hosting the Russia-EU summit to welcoming EXPO 2020 on June 6, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department reports.

The discussion participants gathered round a model of the would-be EXPO part that the Governor Administration First Deputy Head Vadim Dubichev said was a historically important one.

‘It is here that Russian President Vladimir Putin, the European Council President Herman van Rompuy, and the European Commission Chairman José Manuel Barroso stood during the summit meeting. Governor Evgeny Kuivashev was telling them about the changes Yekaterinburg would undergo by 2020 and what it would look like then. Some historically important words about how the European Union paid special attention to our application were said. The EU representatives also promised to support the application. Our partners add a lot of weight to our application, and this is a great advantage,’ Dubichev said.

Yekaterinburg’s application will be presented at the BIE General Assembly in Paris once again in mid-June. It will be necessary to prove the topicality of the site and the relevance of the chosen theme. The Russian theme reads, Global Mind: the Future of Globalization and How It Affects the World.