Our participation in Expo 2010 could cost over half a billion

Prague - The costs of the Czech participation at the Expo 2010 world exhibition in China could exceed half a billion crowns, which would be significantly more than what the Czech Republic spent on the Expo 2005 in Japan. At that time, the government paid around 300 million crowns.
    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will propose to the government next Wednesday to allocate a maximum of 520 million crowns for the country's presentation, according to information from ČTK. The cabinet is set to discuss the concept of the Czech participation on the theme "Fruits of Civilization".
    The budget for the Czech participation in China is expected to be higher, among other reasons, due to a pavilion that is twice as large as the one the Czech Republic had in Japan. While in the land of the rising sun, the Czechs used about 900 square meters, in the most populous Asian country, it will be a pavilion of 2000 square meters.
    The General Commissioner for the exhibition preparation, Pavel Stehlík, stated in February that he would welcome private companies to participate in the financing of the Czech presentation. According to Stehlík, the pavilion will be located in a busy part of the exhibition in the European section near the exhibition square, surrounded by, for example, the Irish, Portuguese, or Slovaks. Although the program is still being developed, the office of the General Commissioner already knows that it would like to bring, for example, the Czech Philharmonic to Expo 2010.
    The Czech presentation at the last world exhibition in Japan was seen by nearly 1.7 million visitors. The Czechs presented an interactive Garden of Music, which was a relaxation space with optical and sound objects that visitors could touch and try out themselves.