Events

ASTANA, 9 June (BelTA) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is taking part in the solemn opening ceremony of the Astana Expo 2017 in Kazakhstan, BelTA has learned.

Heads of state and heads of government of many countries, other officials, including those, who had taken part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the capital of Kazakhstan, also turned up for the ceremony.

The solemn ceremony is expected to include several stages and to end with colorful fireworks.

The theme of the Astana Expo 2017 is Future Energy. The expo is supposed to cover one of the hottest topics the international community is concerned about — alternative sources of energy. The expo will last for three months and will end on 10 September. As many as 115 countries and 22 international organizations have confirmed their intention to participate in the expo.

A spherical building called Nur Alem is the key and main pavilion of the Astana Expo 2017. The pavilion is intended to be a museum of energy of the future. Its seven floors are dedicated to demonstrating the main kinds of energy — cosmos energy, solar energy, biomass, wind, water, and kinetic energy. The eighth floor is designed to demonstrate what Astana will look like in 2050.

Over 2 million visitors are expected to come to the Astana Expo 2017.

During the Astana Expo 2017 Belarus is represented by a national pavilion where visitors can learn about the latest Belarusian R&D projects and promising investment projects in an interactive way. The modern pictorial art exhibition From Lisbon to Vladivostok via Minsk, Moscow, and Astana is part of Belarus’ national exposition. It features works by artists from 25 countries. The figure indicates how much attention Belarus pays to integration processes in the entire Eurasian space.