Expo 2020 in Dubai will see a dedicated Women’s Pavilion for the very first time in World Expo history. Designed and created in partnership with luxury jewellery house Cartier, the pavilion will host a line-up of events, workshops and discussions that will raise awareness of women’s issues and highlight the role of women in today’s society.

More good news from St. Petersburg International Economic Forum: a meeting was held between Sergei Gorkov, Chairman of the Russia-UAE Business Council, and Dr Tarek Oliveira Shayya, Executive Vice Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors of Expo 2020. Russia-UAE Business Council signs up as Partner of the business programme of the Russian Pavilion.

It was announced today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that the Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation — established by Russian entrepreneur and patron of the arts, Alisher Usmanov — will come on board as Partner of the Russian Pavilion’s cultural programme at Expo 2020 in Dubai. The Partnership Agreement was signed, in a special ceremony at SPIEF in the presence of Russian Minister for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, by Alexei Gruzdev, Deputy Minister and Commissioner General of the Russian Pavilion at Expo and Fatima Mukhomedzhan, Director of the Art, Science and Sport Charitable Foundation.

There were some very special guests at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on 3 June: none other than UAE Minister for International Relations and Director General of Expo 2020 Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy and Russian Minister for Industry and Trade, Denis Maturov. Continuing Expo 2020’s high profile at SPIEF this year, these two ministerial guests took part in the panel session “World Expo: international cooperation as a driver of sustainable global development”.

Business panel session at SPIEF in the framework of Russia’s participation in Expo 2020.

In the run up to Russia’s participation in Expo 2020 — which kicks off in Dubai in October 2021- the Russian Expo team were excited take part in a special round table panel session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on 2 June to ask the question “Is Russia competitive in the creative industries sector?” Panellists in the session included Tarek Oliveira Shayya, Executive Vice Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors of Expo 2020 and Alexey Sanchenko, Director of Partnerships for the Russian Pavilion. The session also featured founder of Russia Creates, Sergei Kolushev; co-founder and CEO of Yummy United, Oleg Beriev; Director of Strategic Partnerships at Abu Dhabi’s creative industries hub TwoFour54, James Hartt; Head of Gaming and eSports at TwoFour54, Sultan Mohammed Al-Riyami; CEO of Riki Group, Mark Zavadskiy; and Editorial Director, Forbes Russia, Nikolai Uskov. Our expert panellists discussed how local creative talent can be upscaled and exported to compete in the global market, how to avoid losing out in the battle for market share, and ultimately, how to make ingenuity and creativity — which comes naturally for Russians — the foundation of prosperity and a strong economy.

Russia has become the first to announce its intention to host World Expo 2030 in Moscow by submitting a letter of candidature to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) on the 29th April. According to the BIE, Russia has been the only country to apply for the bid so far, however, other candidates can still submit their applications by the 29th October 2021.

As stated in the article published on the official website of Bureau International des Expositions, “the letter from the Prime Minister of Russia, Mikhail Mishustin, was handed to the Secretary General of the BIE, Dimitri S. Kerkentzes, by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Aleksey Gruzdev, and the Ambassador of Russia to France, Aleksey Mechkov.”

After the application period, the BIE will carefully assess “a detailed candidature dossier” of each country. Following “the project examination phase” an election will be held with participance of 169 Member States of the BIE who will decide which candidate will host Expo 2030.

If Russia wins the bidding, Expo 2030 will take place in Moscow between the 27th April and the 27th October 2030. The country has already announced the theme which will be embodied in the concept of Expo 2030 — “Human Progress. Shared vision for the World of Harmony”.

In the article special attention was paid to the country’s valuable contribution to the work of the BIE and World Expos in particular: “Russia is an active and engaged Member State of the BIE and participates regularly in World and Specialised Expos. Its participation has been rewarded on several occasions including at World Expo 2010 Shanghai and World Expo 2015 Milan.”

A projection of Yuri Gagarin’s image, a soviet astronaut, who became the first human to accomplish a successful journey into outer space on April 12, 1961, was displayed on one of the most iconic symbols of Dubai to mark the occasion of the Cosmonautics day which is yearly celebrated in Russia on April 12

Alexey Gruzdev, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and General Commissioner of the Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020 gave a welcome speech at the official presentation of the Russian Pavilion which took place in Dubai on April 8:

“We believe that ‘Creative Mind: Driving the Future’, the theme of Russia’s participation in Expo 2020, is a reflection of the times and the world we currently live in”, stated Alexey Gruzdev. “We are working on a diverse programme of business and cultural events for Expo 2020 in Dubai, which will not only open the theme but will also give millions of visitors a chance to discover Russia’s latest achievements in manufacturing, science, technology and art”.

On March 30, Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation held the first meeting of the Organizing Committee responsible for Moscow’s bid to host Expo 2030 During the meeting the members of the committee discussed future plans for the bid campaign and identified the key objectives that should become a primary focus of attention for the work of the Organizing Committee, as well as considered potential themes of the exhibition that would reflect the relevant questions the World has to face today. The plans to apply for the right to host Expo 2030 in Moscow were revealed at the General Assembly of the International Exhibitions Bureau, which took place on 1 December, 2020 On 8 April, 2021, in the framework of Russia Creates 2 forum in Dubai, the Organizing Committee is going to present Moscow’s bid to host Expo 2030 to the general public and the participants of the forum.

Following Expo 2020 Dubai “Global Challenges” thematic week Pavel Luksha, founder of the Global Education Futures, member of supervisory board of the University 20.35 — the first Russian university of professional development in digital economy and professor at SKOLKOVO School of Management, shares a video about what our future could look like in 2020s. Pavel Luksha is a member of the BRICS Skills Development Working Group (chaired in 2015) and co-author of the Rapid Foresight methodology used by thousands of futurists and practitioners in Russia and around the world. In his presentation “2020s: A Decisive Decade?” as part of Expo 2020 Dubai “Global Challenges” week Pavel Luksha discusses the possibility of 2020’s becoming the most hopeful, yet the most catastrophic decade in history. Why?

Watch the video!

The total amount of volunteer applications that have already been received by Expo 2020 exceeds the staff capacity of the global event by 5 times. However, as announced by Expo 2020 Organizing Committee, volunteer application process will remain open until the end of March 2021 30 volunteers are going to welcome guests from 180 countries and provide help to organizers of the exhibition for an overall period of six months. Individuals above 18 years old of any nationality, who are fluent in English and possess high communication skills are invited to participate in Expo 2020 volunteer programme.

Alexey Gruzdev, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russian Federation and General Commissioner of Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020 met with Mohammad Ahmad Al Jaber, the UAE Ambassador to Russian Federation. During the meeting the mutual relations between the two countries were discussed as well as opportunities to strengthen and broaden an alliance between Russia and UAE, which has already brought a significant progress to all public sectors.

On February 22, Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and Head of Organizing Committee of the Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020, together with Sergey Chemezov, Managing Director of Rostec Corporation, and Alexey Gruzdev, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and General Commissioner of the Russian pavilion at Expo 2020, visited Dubai. They were accompanied by Araz Agalarov, CEO of Crocus Group, Sergey Gorkov, Chairman of the Russian-Emirates Business Council, and Dmitry Mikhailov, Managing Director of a non-profit organization “National Exhibition Operator”. During the visit the delegation paid special attention to the process of construction of the Russian Pavilion. Denis Manturov had a meeting with H.E. Reem Al Hashimi, Minister of International Cooperation of the UAE and Head of the Organizing Committee of Expo 2020, and was later interviewed by Nikolay Uskov, Forbes Russia. A meeting between Alexey Gruzdev and Majif Saiv Al Ghurair, Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was also held in the framework of the visit.

Let us show you how it went!

On February 22, Dubai hosted a meeting between Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and Head of the Organizing Committee of the Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020, and H.E. Reem Al Hashimi, Head of the Organizing Committee at Expo 2020 and Minister for International Cooperation of the UAE. During the meeting they discussed how Russia’s preparation for the exhibition was going, the cultural and business programmes of the pavilion and other issues. Most notably, H.E. Reem Al Hashimi thanked Denis Manturov for Russia’s initiative in holding a festival dedicated to women, emphasizing its importance not only for the exhibition in general, but also for her as a woman.

The Commissioner General of the Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai and Deputy Minister of Intustry and Trade of the Russian Federation Alexey Gruzdev congratulated the Expo 2020 team on embarking upon a new and important stage in preparation for World Expo.

Konstantin Trofimenko, Managing Director of Centre for Research of Urban Transport Problems and Institute for Transport Economics and Transport Policy Studies at HSE University, joined the Urban & Rural Development week at @Expo2020Dubai and shared his views on one of the key themes of this week — urbanism. Virtual sessions are organized by @Expo2020Dubai team on a regular basis and bring together experts from different countries to discuss the most important and actual questions today.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to declare 2021 the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. According to the resolution, the international community should support developing countries in their effort to increase their presence in creative economy and to encourage development of creative industries. Moreover, the resolution recognizes the important role of the creative economy in boosting employment and actively supporting the start-up culture, small and medium-sized enterprises and also in fighting hunger and poverty.

With a special focus on the creative industry and projects which have been successfully implemented inside the industry by Russian companies that are willing to share their experience, a large number of events are going to be organised both online and offline by the team of the Russian Pavilion in the framework of Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE.

The Skolkovo Innovation Center will demonstrate Russian technological achievements at Expo 2020.

Arkady Dvorkovich, Chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation: We attend all the largest Forums in the world, so Expo 2020 in Dubai is a great chance to introduce our new projects and recent developments. We’ve got «success stories» and would like to share them with the world. I believe that the Russian Pavillion will be the most interesting and will probably be among the leaders at Expo 2020. We will present virtual and augmented reality technologies and robotic components as we usually do. We are planning to introduce new developments based on new technologies in such areas as ecology, healthcare, health food and education. We are going to talk about these innovative projects in simple words during seminars and forum discussions.

Alexey Gruzdev, Comissioner-General of the Russian Pavilion at World Expo 2020 and H.E. Reem Al-Hashimi, Managing Director for the Dubai World Expo 2020 met in Dubai.

On February 19, 2020 Alexey Gruzdev , Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and Comissioner-General of the Russian Pavilion at Expo 2020 and H.E. Reem Al-Hashimi , UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Managing Director for the Dubai World Expo 2020 held a meeting in Dubai to discuss the preparation status of Russia for World Expo 2020 as well as the prospects for cooperation between the UAE and the Russian Federation.

Russian Emirates Publishing House became the first official media partner of the Russia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

On February 18, 2020 the ceremony of signing a media partnership agreement in the framework of the Russia pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai was held in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and journalists.

Under the agreement, signed by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the General Commissioner of the Russia Pavilion at Expo 2020, Alexey Gruzdev and General Director of the Russian Emirates Publishing & Advertising Sergey Tokarev, publishing house will provide comprehensive media support to the Russia Pavilion, large-scale coverage of cultural, entertainment and business programs events, as well as develop and implement a special project on Russia’s participation at Expo 2020 in print and online media.

❝The Russian Emirates Publishing House❞ has been operating in the UAE media sphere for almost 20 years, and its media products are well-respected among our compatriots in the UAE and in business circles. We are confident in successful and fruitful cooperation with our new partner, said Alexey Gruzdev during the signing ceremony.

Russian Minister for Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov today laid a time capsule in the foundations of the Russian Pavilion at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai — a symbolic gesture to launch Russia’s participation in next year’s Expo. Emphasising the significance of Expo for Russia, Manturov said «For us, our Pavilion is not just an exhibition space. It is actually a physical way to show the connection of the modern, dynamic Russia of today with its rich past, with its historic and spiritual heritage. Our Pavilion will be a platform for buiness discussions, for the creation of new networks and connections and for the development of new ideas and cooperation».

Today the world was introduced to Latifa and her brother Rashid, their robot friends Alif, Opti and Terra, and Salama, the wise and powerful old Ghaf tree — the official mascots of Expo 2020. We look forward to Latifa and Rashid leading us on their adventures through the wonderful world of Expo, and getting to know this amazing global event through their eyes!