Saudi Arabia submitted on Thursday its bid for hosting the World Expo 2030, during the General Assembly of The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Paris. The Royal Commission for the City of Riyadh joined a virtual meeting of the General Assembly of the International Bureau of Exhibitions, which convened on Thursday in the French capital, to start the bidding process, which will take place in five stages until the final vote at the end of 2023. The Commission’s CEO, Fahd Al-Rasheed, said that Saudi Arabia’s capital was a global city, adding that the authorities were planning to transform it into one of the top-10 global economies. Riyadh has become one of the world’s rapidly growing cities, he underlined, as it expanded from a small town to a huge capital. Five contenders - Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Italy, the Ukraine, and Russia - are in the reckoning for the six-month long event organized by the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). Addressing the 170 member states, the CEO of the Commission said that the World Expo 2030 would “coincide with the culmination of Vision 2030, and it will be an extraordinary opportunity to showcase the achievements of the Vision and share valuable lessons from this unprecedented transformation.” He noted that Riyadh has become one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with its population jumping from 150,000 people in 1950 to reach 8 million people presently. This had led to a leap in the city’s economy, he underlined. “Riyadh of 2030 will be a thriving, inclusive, and sustainable city of the future, a preferred destination for businesses and talent, offering world-class education and healthcare while delivering great quality of life for all,” Al-Rasheed said. He detailed Riyadh’s mega projects designed to turn the city into one of the top 10 economies and an ideal candidate to host Expo 2030.