Arkhangelsk will launch a large program to prepare the city for the fifth international Arctic forum, The Arctic — Territory of Dialogue, scheduled for April 2019, forum organizer, the Roscongress Foundation, reports.

According to Arkhangelsk Governor Igor Orlov, the city is building the Nord Expo Congress and Exhibition Center (CEC) and making arrangements at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NAFU) campus, which will house the forum itself. The building and structures to be involved in forum events are being overhauled.

The transport and energy infrastructure is being upgraded and the city is being provided with new services. The focus is on developing the hotel sector. A new four-star hotel, Novotel Arkhangelsk (89 rooms), opened in July, with another three hotels — Serafima (21 rooms), Severnitsa (18 rooms), and Admiral (10 rooms) — opened somewhat earlier.

The organizers are planning to use a number of facilities on the NAFU campus for the forum, including the main, second and third NAFU buildings, the exhibition pavilion, Center for Collective Use of Scientific Equipment No. 2 (CCU-2), the dorms, and the Intellectual Center — the NAFU scientific library.

The CEC Nord Expo is envisaged as an additional venue for events involving young people, scientists, representatives from Arctic towns, and artists. (From 2021 on, it might be used as a venue for the plenary meeting.)

Two new NAFU buildings — an exhibition pavilion (a multi-role sports complex for 800) and CCU-2 — were built for the forum in 2017.