The 164th General Assembly of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) was held in Paris, France from November 22 to 23. The Chinese delegation comprising of CCPIT, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China Flower Association and Beijing International Horticultural Expo Coordination Bureau attended the meeting and made a report on the progress of preparation for 2019 International Horticultural Exhibition Beijing. BIE and its member states commended Beijing Expo for the new record number of official exhibitors and spoke highly of the work that has been done in preparation for the expo.

The general assembly was chaired by BIE President Christensen. Work reports of specialized committees, reports on preparation of relevant expos and 2025 World Expo bidding reports were heard at the meeting where Horticultural Expo 2021 Doha was also recognized and Osaka of Japan was elected as host of World Expo 2025, which is an international registered expo. Representatives from 156 member states of BIE attended the general assembly.

The Chinese delegation explained in details at the general assembly, which is the last one prior to the opening of  2019 International Horticultural Exhibition Beijing, the preparatory work for the Beijing Expo in international exhibitors invitation, park construction, exhibition planning, activity planning, supporting services and operation preparation, etc. Great importance has been attached by the Chinese government to the expo and the preparatory work is being carried out by an organizing committee comprising of 35 departments of the central government and Beijing Municipality. As of today, 87 countries and 23 international organizations have confirmed participation into the expo and 41 outdoor exhibition gardens has been planned, surpassing the target number. The construction of the expo site is going on smoothly and work has begun in 34 country gardens including those for Germany, India, Japan, Netherlands and the Sudan. The host will do its best to facilitate the exhibition setup, build the supporting facilities including the expo village, create one-on-one service teams in order to provide quality services to exhibitors.

BIE President Christensen and Secretary General Loscertales lauded the progress achieved in preparing for Beijing Expo, congratulated China on fulfilling the invitation target and wished the expo a success. Former President of BIE Philipsen spoke highly of the site planning for Beijing Expo. Representatives from Italy,  Kazakhstan and Algeria commended China for being highly professional and efficient in preparing for the Expo and are confident and eager about its opening.

The Beijing Expo, to be held between April 29 and October 7 of 2019, is a second A1-category Horticultural Expo after Kunming Expo in 1999. Under the theme of “Live Green, Live Better”, the expo is estimated to attract 16 million visitors. The site is located along the banks of Guishui River with a planned area of 960 ha.

The Chinese delegation also voted for the host country of World Expo 2025. The three bidding countries of Russian, Japan and Azerbaijan all took it very seriously and sent ministerial-level delegations to the meeting to give bidding presentations. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe make remarks via video to support the bidding efforts of their own countries. After two rounds of voting, the Japanese city of Osaka won the bid for hosting World Expo 2025 which will be the second world expo to be hosted by Osaka. With the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”, the expo will take place from May 3 to November 3 of 2019.