16th Asian Games
Guangzhou, China was officially named host of the 2010 Asian Games today by
the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), in a race that was decided months ago when
all of the other bidding cities dropped by the wayside.
The announcement was made during the OCA's General Assembly meetings in Doha,
Qatar, site of the next Asian Games in 2006. Some 7,000 citizens of Guangzhou
celebrated at the Pazhou Convention and Exhibition Center.
Guangzhou is planning to expand the city's airport, build a new railway station
and an athletes village, and numerous other improvements to venues and
infrastructure.
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Before this official annoucement, the Olympic Council of Asia has announced
that given the withdrawal of all other candidates, the 2010 Asian Games will be
officially awarded to Guangzhou, China on July 1, when delegates meet in Doha,
Qatar for meetings.
Guangzhou has continued to run hard for the bid, despite the news that Amman,
Jordan, Daegu, South Korea and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have all abandoned the
race. During the visit by the OCA evaluation committee Guangzhou put up 50,000
bid posters with the slogans: "Co-operation, Competition and Development,"
"Invigorating Asia, Inspiring the World" and "Wholesome and Exciting; Green and
Clean."
Guangzhou announced this week that as part of the support for its 2010 Asian
Games bid the city will be spending about $350 million dollars in the next
several years to considerably increase green space in the city. The program
began in September of last year.
Meanwhile, Olympic Council of Malaysia's President Tunku Imran has called the
decision of Malaysia to forego a games bid a "blessing in disguise" and that
Malaysia could use the money that would have been spent on the games to develop
sport at the grassroots level in Malaysia.The fight to host the 2010 Asian Games
looks to be over before it even began after the new Malaysian government
announced that it will not support the Olympic Council of Malaysia with a Kuala
Lumpur bid.
The announcement might be the knock-out blow to Kuala Lumpur's chances to host
the 2010 games, though on occasion there are surprise turnarounds. Kuala
Lumpur's support for a bid has always been tepid at best from the time that they
first announced an interest in the games.
Malaysia's Sports Minister Azalina Othman stated, "The Cabinet has decided that
Malaysia does not bid to host the 2010 Asian Games because of the cost
implications."
The decision leaves Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province in southern China
(formerly known as Canton) alone in the field, and one would assume that if the
Olympic Council of Asia is pleased with their inspection visit this week, that
the vote in July at the OCA meetings would simply be a stamp of approval for the
city to host the games.
Support in Guangzhou has been high, with rallies, drives to sign up volunteers
and fun-runs to publicize the games bid.
The race was reminiscent of the 2006 Commonwealth Games bid contest in which
Melbourne, Australia simply outlasted other bid hopefuls Durban, South Africa,
Barbados and Wellington, New Zealand, all who abandoned the race before the bid
came to a vote.
For the 2010 Asian Games race, early interest was shown by cities such as
Singapore, Kaoshiung, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Seoul. As the race progressed,
Daegu, Korea; Amman, Jordan; Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou all had said they
planned to bid. Only Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur submitted bids, with the Kuala
Lumpur bid missing a letter of support from the government.
India and Korea have both mentioned interest in hosting the 2014 Asian Games.
