An article of interest on China!!China wins bid to host 2008 Olympics
By Anita Narayan
ChinaOnline News
(13 July 2001) History has been made: The world’s foremost sporting event has been handed over to China for the first time.
Considered the front-runner during the bid process, Beijing has beat out rival cities Toronto, Canada; Paris, France; Istanbul, Turkey; and Osaka, Japan, to host the 2008 Olympic Games. The winner was announced in Moscow after each of the candidates had been given the chance to make a final 45-minute presentation of their bids to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Russian capital’s World Trade Center.
Winning presentation
During its presentation to the IOC assembly, Beijing said it was time the Olympics came to China after it lost out to Sydney, Australia, by just two votes in 1993 for the right to host the 2000 Games.
The economics involved
To prepare for the Olympics, Beijing has slated approximately US$20 billion worth of city improvements over the next seven years toward infrastructure, such as new roads and parks, as well as the environment. Such a large budget would likely make Beijing the host of the most expensive Games ever seen, CNN reported.
With estimated revenues of US$1.625 billion and costs of US$1.606 billion, the city estimates a modest profit of US$19 million from playing host in 2008. Chinese officials have reportedly been studying the actions taken by the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, which managed to post a record US$235 million surplus.
As the winning city, Beijing will be guaranteed at least US$1.2 billion from the sales of TV rights and sponsorships for the Olympics, as those contracts have already been signed.
Business analysts, such as The Goldman Sachs Group, have also predicted that winning the bid would boost China's gross domestic product by 0.3 percent per year from 2002 to 2008. The country’s economy stands to benefit further in terms of the development of its service sectors, including tourism, transportation, logistics and information technology, Reuters noted.
On the Chinese stock market, the latest trend is for speculators to chase any stock with "Beijing" in its title in the hopes of profiting from a potential spending boom. Businesses such as China Resources Beijing Land and Beijing Capital Airport have all risen by almost a third in the last three months.
"There will be a good opportunity for revenue generation," Holden told ChinaOnline. Noting that companies around the world will "want to get their names known in China," he said it is possible that the 2008 Olympics will be "viable commercially."
Indeed, the U.S.-based General Motors Corp. and Xerox Corp., Amsterdam's Heineken N.V., Japan’s Fuji Photo Film Co., Australia's Telstra Co. and Taiwan's Acer Inc. are among 20 corporations underwriting two-thirds of Beijing's bid budget, The Associated Press reported. Chinese firms like Legend Computer Group, which donated money, equipment and ad space to Beijing's bid committee, and China Netcom Corp., another sponsor, have entered the hoopla as well.
Overall, she added, "I don’t think the China we’re looking at today will be the China we’ll see in seven years."