Almost 200 nations invited to Int'l Festival of Youth in Russia's Yekaterinburg

MSOCOW. Aug 28 (Interfax) - The participant selection process for the International Festival of Youth, due to be held in Yekaterinburg in September, is over, the event's directorate said in a statement on Friday.

"Some 10,000 young people from 191 countries have received invitations to the festival," the statement said.

Of the over 113,000 applications submitted this year, those from foreigners "exceeded Russians' by 32,000 for the first time in the history of festival movement," it said. The final shortlist includes 5,000 delegates from Russia and 5,000 young people from other countries, it said.

"Traditionally, the festival will have a wide representation of young people from post-Soviet countries, at more than 1,000 representatives. Also leading in terms of delegate numbers are Argentine, Brazil, India, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia - the countries from absolutely different world macro-regions," the festival's general director Dmitry Ivanov was quoted in the statement as saying.

The key difference of the upcoming forum is its sector-specific approach to delegation-formation: participants are spread over eight profession areas including information technology, creative industries, media, sports, science and public service, the administration said.

The festival will take place in Yekaterinburg on September 11 -17. The Ekaterinburg-EXPO international Exhibition Center has been chosen as the main venue.