BIE delegation completes assessment of Riyadh Expo 2030 bid

BIE Mission in a meeting

The Bureau International des Expositions’ (BIE) delegation concluded its visit, which ran from March 5 to March 10, during which members discussed the Kingdom's bid to host Expo 2030 in Riyadh.

During the visit, the delegation discussed the technical aspects of the Kingdom's candidacy file to host Riyadh Expo 2030. Members also held a series of official meetings and workshops with a number of ministers and senior officials and discussed the details of the capital's candidacy file to host this global event.

Fahd Al-Rasheed, CEO of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, said that the Kingdom’s file is strong. He added that Riyadh is ready to host Expo 2030, as it has met all technical requirements, in addition to having unprecedented international support to host the exhibition.

The CEO explained that this was the result of support and direct follow-up by the wise leadership and joint work between all government agencies, alongside support from the Saudi society.

He added that an exceptional edition will be presented at Riyadh Expo 2030, expecting it to receive more than 40 million visits. A billion others are poised to come through the virtual platform (Metaverse), which will be the first of its kind in Expo exhibitions.

BIE Secretary-General, Dimitri Kerkentzes, commented that there is no doubt that Saudi Arabia and Riyadh boast all the essentials to host this global forum. He indicated that Expo 2030 matched the Saudi program that was reviewed this week. It is also in line with the Kingdom's development over the past few years.

He pointed out that the Expo project is very compatible with the development plans of Riyadh and the Kingdom. Its location is deemed a natural extension of the capital city, given the new mega international airport, along with the Riyadh train project that will be operated soon.

The presence of an integrated infrastructure in the Kingdom meets the requirements of an event such as Expo, which plays an important role knowing that the infrastructure is in place and ready if the Kingdom wins the competition to host Expo 2030, Kerkentzes noted.

According to data compiled by Argaam, Saudi Arabia submitted, on Nov. 29, 2022, its bid to host Expo 2030 in Riyadh to BIE, the governing body of the global event.

The Kingdom presented its file to organize Expo 2030 in the Saudi capital, along with other candidates South Korea (Busan), Italy (Rome) and Ukraine (Odessa).

The final vote to select the host city of the World Expo 2030 is scheduled to take place through a secret ballot next November.