Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Georgy Poltavchenko, Governor of Saint Petersburg took part today in the celebrations dedicated to launching the construction of the ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Center in Saint Petersburg.

The new exhibition center will become the largest in Saint Petersburg and one of the largest in Europe. It will be a modern venue for business, cultural and entertaining events, such as congresses, exhibitions, forums, concerts and sports competitions. It is planned to open the center in 2014. Gazprom Group acts as the project contractor.

Alexey Miller and Georgy Poltavchenko took part in the ExpoForum foundation pile driving.

“Knowledge, experience and technology exchange is an impetus to the successful business development. I believe that creation of a modern congress and exhibition center will open new opportunities for Russian and foreign companies. In addition, the ExpoForum construction will play an important part for Saint Petersburg to become a largest business center in Europe. Business tourism will develop more intensely and the city's socioeconomic level will be higher,” said Alexey Miller.

Background

The ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Center with the footprint of 56 hectares is being built in the Pushkin district of Saint Petersburg. ExpoForum is planned to consist of six showrooms with the total area of around 100,000 square meters, a congress center with the attendance capacity of up to 3,000 people, nearly 40 thousand square kilometers of open exhibition space, a business center occupying 25 thousand square meters, and two hotels.