France pulls World Expo 2025 Bid
The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) will soon gather to discuss the host city for the 2025 World Expo. Organised every five years, these expositions bring awareness to certain causes for six months in the city. This week, France pulled their bid as one of the possibilities, leaving the Russian Federation, Japan and Azerbaijan in the running. In 2020, the World Expo will be hosted by Dubai.
The Finance Minister of France, Bruno Le Maire, made the announcement earlier this week. According to his interview with a local news channel, he confirmed that financial strain had motivated their decision. Currently, Paris is slated to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and the 2023 Rugby World Cup. If they had won the bid for the 2025 World Expo, a ‘third large-scale event’ may have strained their resources too much.
Other bids for the World Expo
As mentioned, three other countries have put forth bids for the 2025 World Expo. Each city had to present a theme and a plan for their locations in a dossier. Each theme is meant to highlight a specific cause and raise awareness. So far, no frontrunners have been announced, although it looks as if Japan has the strongest bid. Here are the initial bids for the exposition and their themes.
- Paris, France – ‘Sharing our Knowledge, Caring for our Planet’
- Baku, Azerbaijan – ‘Developing Human Capital, Building a Better Future’
- Ekaterinburg, Russia – ‘Changing the World: Innovations and Better Life for Future Generations’
- Osaka, Japan – ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives’
Each bid was presented the BIE General Assembly last November, with different mediums to showcase the themes. Presentations were well-received, but will be subject to a BIE delegation visit in early 2018. Only then will the winner be confirmed in November 2018 after the countries and host sites have been inspected.
Osaka Plans
In 2016, Japan legalised gambling for the first time. Since then, Osaka has been planning an integrated resort featuring a casino floor on the man-made island of Yumeshima. This is also the proposed site for their World Expo bid. Should a resort be built on the island by 2025, Osaka could host the proposed 40 million tourists for the event.
However, unrest in political circles has pushed back planning of regulatory framework for casinos and resorts. A snap election in November postponed the planned hearing for new framework after it was rejected in April. There are still plans for these proposals to be passed, and the government appears to have planned for the event. Keep visiting InternetPokies.org for more about this story.
