Akhmetzhan Yessimov awards Order of Friendship to BIE Sec-Gen

ASTANA. KAZINFORM On behalf of President Nazarbayev, Chairman of Astana EXPO-2017 Akhmetzhan Yessimov awarded Vicente Loscertales the Dostyk Order of the 2nd degree, the company's press service reports.

The award  was presented to the BIE Secretary-General at the 162nd session of BIE General Assembly in Paris during which the CEO of Astana Expo-2017national company also made a report on the results of the recent exhibition in the Kazakh capital.

In his report, Mr. Yessimov noted that the number of visitors of the Astana exhibition was more than double of that planned and made almost four million people and that the Kazakh pavilion alone saw 1.3 million visits.

According to him, EXPO gave a powerful impetus to the country's economic growth with GDP growth marked at 4.3%, industrial output at 70%, and demand for travel services at 78%.

It was also noted that even before the start of EXPO-2017, Kazakhstan decided to keep the exhibition site as heritage and to create a comfortable tourist area on its basis.

As previously reported, Kazakhstan's Nur Alem pavilion, the Best Practices Zone, as well as two thematic pavilions and the EXPO Art Center were reopened on November 11.