ASIA – Daegu in South Korea will become only the third Asian city to host The World Gas Conference in 2021.
The news of the city’s winning bid was announced during the International Gas Union (IGU) recent meeting in Berlin.
The bid for the 2021 event from Daegu Metropolitan City and the Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) won through against bids from Norway, Russia and China. KOGAS recently moved its headquarters to Daegu.
Daegu is in line to host 6,000 gas experts, officials and scholars from 90 countries for a conference that is expected to draw 15,000 exhibitors and visitors.
The WGC is the largest of the three major energy conventions; the World Energy Congress (WEC) and World Petroleum Congress (WPC) being the other two.
Daegu has previously hosted the WEC and its burgeoning reputation as a green energy city was reportedly a contributing factor in the win.
This year’s successful bid should help erase the memories of two failed attempts to host the World Gas Conference in 2002 and 2011.
Korea’s WGC Bidding Committee visited 50 countries and diplomatic emissaries met with each country’s government and gas officials in effort to gain support for Korea as host of the conference.
According to KOGAS, the conference is expected to create some 120bn won (US$113m) in added value as well as 2,500 jobs.
Daegu Mayor, Young Jin-Gwon, said: “We will do our best to prepare for a successful 2021 WGC. We’ll keep expanding convention infrastructure and hosting more international events to make Daegu an international meeting destination.”
Among next year’s big conferences booked in to the city is the ISES Solar World Congress 2015, which organisers predict will draw 2,000 delegates from 50 countries.
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