Sept 2005 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

ASIA
For Fame & Glory -
The 30 th Olympic Games in Beijing
By Barry Doesburg
The 117 th International Olympic Committee Meeting
in Singapore was not one to be missed. For sure
the media did not. From July 6 th to 9 th the entire
IOC, over 100 voting members, together with the
organizing committees of the five candidate cities
gathered in the Raffles Ballroom of the Raffles City
Convention Centre to elect the host city of the
Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012. London beat
Paris in the final round
of voting by 54 votes to
50. This will be the first
time that a city will host
the Olympic Games for
the third time. London
hosted the Games in
1908 and 1948. The other Candidate Cities Paris,
New York, Moscow and Madrid were thanked by
IOC President Jacques Rogge for their excellent
efforts and the quality of their candidatures.
Once more, it became clear that the Olympic
Games are much more than just a sporting
event. History, pride, patriotism, politics, media
attention, tourism, enormous budgets boosting the
economy and infrastructure, are raising the stakes
high. The toughest and most prestigious battles
are fought seven years before the torch even hits
the fire. The British brought Tony Blair and David
Beckham; the French had Jacques Chirac to support
their bid. The IOC itself is not very shy of prestige
either. It is full of royalty: Prince Willem Alexander
of Orange, Le Grand-Duc de Luxembourg, Princess
Nora of Liechtenstein, HRH Princess Royal of
Great Britain and Price Albert II of Monaco are all
members.
China knows it, desperately needs it and no
doubt will make the Games to a big success, the
Chinese way. The dragon has many faces. And the
timing is perfect!
Some Background
The Beijing 2008 Games will take
place from 8 August 2008 until 24
August 2008. Approximately 10,500
athletes are expected to participate
in the Games with around 20,000
reporters, photographers and
cameramen bringing the Games to the world.
That’s 2 media staff for each athlete!
The official emblem of Beijing 2008 entitled
“Chinese Seal-Dancing Beijing” combines the
Chinese seal and the art of calligraphy with sporting
features, transforming the elements into a human
figure running forward and embracing triumph. The
figure resembles the Chinese character “Jing”,
which stands for the name of the host city and
represents a particularly significant Chinese style.
The artwork embodies four messages: Chinese
culture, the color of red China, Beijing welcomes
friends from all over the world and to promote
the Olympic motto of ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’
(Faster, Higher, Stronger).
Economics & Infrastructure
Beijing will experience a major boost in its world
standing in connection with the Olympics and is
hoping to cash in with total investments in the city
expected to exceed US$182 billion. Of this US$34
billion will be pumped into the city’s infrastructure
and service industry and more than US$36 billion
in the development of finance, trade, logistics,
exhibitions and tourism sectors. Another US$3.7
billion will go on 400km of new expressways, US$6.7
billion on public transport (among others 4 new
subway lines) and other roads and US$4.4 billion
on environment protection. And so it goes on.
Altogether it will be one of the largest construction
projects ever in China since the construction of
the Great Wall.
Beijing mayor Wang Qishan explained that in
terms of urban development, China’s capital lagged
far behind previous host cities as Sydney and
Atlanta. It still has 400 villages on its outskirts and
hotels and hospitals are all concentrated in the
city centre. One of the most urgent needs is to
develop housing, roads and other infrastructure in
outlying areas to diffuse the 14 million people and
2 million cars (The Straits Times, 21/05/2005). To
improve the safety of the athletes and all visitors
during the Games. The security budget is likely to
top the US$1.3 billion spent in Athens.
Other cities will be involved as well in the
Olympics. The Organising Committee for the
Games (BOCOG) has announced that partnership
agreements have been signed with four cities
outside Beijing, that will host the football
preliminaries during the 2008 Games: Tianjin,
Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao. The
equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong for
the welfare of the horses.
The Olympic village, which covers a total area
of 66 hectares, lies at the North end of Beijing’s
central axis and has the Olympic Forrest Park to
its North and the major Olympic venues to its South.
The village will join a long list of important sites
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Vol.15 • No. 7 • September 2005