At the 143rd General Assembly of the BIE held in Paris on March 31 (local time), Milan was successful in winning the bid to host World Expo 2015.

According to the agenda of the assembly, Italy and Turkey made the last round of statements about bidding for the 2015 Registered World Expo. Italian Prime Minister Prodi and Turkish President Gul, head of each delegation, went onto the stage and made the statement to win support from the member states. The theme offered by Italy is "Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life" while Turkey's theme is "Marching along the path towards a better world -- Health for all". In the bidding statements, both countries have shown respect for and friendliness to each other, which fully represents the spirit of cooperation and exchange advocated by World Expo. BIE has 152 member states. Except Swaziland, the 151 Member States of the BIE participated in the General Assembly and cast their votes. In the end, 86 votes were given to Italy and 65 votes were given to Turkey.