Sulik: Slovakia Received Two Significant Awards for Its Expo Dubai Presentation

Bratislava, August 25 (TASR) - Slovakia received two significant awards for its presentation at the Expo 2020 Dubai exhibition, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) leader and former economy minister Richard Sulik told a news conference on Friday. In the international Muse Award contest, Slovakia won gold for the National Day from among 60 projects competing for the prize. The National Day was held on January 27, 2022, with 60 artists taking part in the evening ceremony. Slovakia also received the Eventex Award. According to Sulik, it is a prestigious contest founded in 2009, which evaluates and gives awards to the best work in the world of events and experiential marketing. Slovakia ended third from among 761 projects participating in it. "I believe these two awards are clear proof that Expo Dubai 2020 was no whim. It was actually an exceptional project we managed to implement in a record-short time," stated Sulik. He pointed to the fact that the Slovak exposition was visited by almost 600,000 people during Expo's duration of 182 days. At the same time, 550 business meetings and 11 business missions, in which 175 companies were involved, took place during the entire Expo. "We also adhered to the €8.2 million budget that was allocated for Expo Dubai 2020. For comparison, the budget for the next Expo, which will take place in 2025 in Osaka, is estimated at €20 million," said Sulik. He admitted some accounting discrepancies. Parliament asked the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) to carry out an audit of the cost-effectiveness of the use of state money at Expo 2020 Dubai. Sulik will comment on it after its results are available. The Economy Ministry released results of two internal audits with respect to Slovakia's participation in the EXPO 2020 Dubai, identified shortcomings as well as risks and forwarded the results to the Bratislava Regional Police Directorate, Supreme Audit Office and the Public Procurement Office. ko/mcs