Vol. 2, No.3 - November 5, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Yao Fails To Sizzle In NBA Debut
- China Dangles Olympics Carrot For Global Business Community
- China's Harbin To Bid For 2014 Winter Olympics
- Games Projects Attract Global Interest
- Sports Agent Course Held In China
Yao Fails To Sizzle In NBA Debut
Yao Ming's National Basketball Association debut was an uneventful one on Wednesday, as the 7-foot-6 Chinese rookie struggled during his Houston Rockets 91-82 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
The number one overall pick in last June's NBA draft, failed to pick up any points, pulled down just two rebounds and picked up three fouls while playing just 13 minutes coming off the bench.
Yao played in just the second and fourth quarters and missed the only shot he took, a turnaround 12-foot attempt over Jeff Foster.
He turned over the ball the first time he touched it when he first took the floor in the second quarter.
The much-heralded rookie received polite applause from the crowd at Canseco Fieldhouse, where Yao played for China in the World Basketball Championships this summer.
But he appeared jittery in his early moments on the floor and failed to make any real impact on the game.
Source: China Daily
China Dangles Olympics Carrot For Global Business Community
Promising to make the 2008 Beijing Olympics the "biggest and the best ever", China's Ambassador to the European Union invited the international business community to make good use of this "historical opportunity."
Addressing an audience of some 100 European businessmen and trade organisations here on Monday, China's Ambassador Guan Chengyuan declared "China will need the cooperation of the international business community to make the 2008 Games most successful in history."
Mr. Fan Jian, who is also Director of the Leading Group Office for the Olympic industrial economy action of Beijing city, stressed "the economic and industrial dynamism of the Chinese capital," adding, "We have created a better environment for investment and for introduction of overseas technology."
The 16-member Olympics delegation, which had flown in from Beijing specially for the Brussels meeting, included the managers of six engineering and two construction companies. They are looking for tie-ups with their European counterparts, in order both to provide goods and services for the Beijing Olympics and to develop production for the domestic market and exports.
The assembled businessmen and consultants wanted to know how they could effectively take part in this massive construction effort. Mr. Yu gave the broad outlines of the tendering process. Starting October 27, his Office will publish announcements of the pre-qualification process in the international press. Details will also be available on the Office website. The process would be completed by the end of the year.
Source: China Daily
China's Harbin To Bid For 2014 Winter Olympics
Despite its failure to win the hosting right for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, China's northeastern city Harbin remains confident and will bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Zhao Yinggang, director of Heilongjiang provincial sports administration, said "we will continue to bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics by improving our environment and implementing our Olympic projects in accordance with the municipal infrastructure development."
On August 28, the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee revealed four finalists for the 2010 Winter Olympics, including Vancouver, Canada, with China's Harbin being eliminated by the International Olympic Committee.
Source: Xinhuanet
Games Projects Attract Global Interest
Global tenders for Beijing's 2008 Games mega construction projects have received strong response from Hong Kong businesses.
Liu Zhi, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Development Commission, said more than 20 Hong Kong business consortiums have asked for copies of the tender documents soon after the capital city began inviting tenders for eight colossal Olympic projects on October 25, 2002.
The construction, operation and management of these projects, with a total investment of 14.5 billion Yuan (US$1.7 billion), are open to tenders from both domestic and overseas companies. They are all related to major sports venues and facilities including the National Stadium, National Gymnasium, National Swimming Centre, Olympic Village and Olympic Park.
"Of the 20 consortiums, five or six have contacted us and expressed their intent to bid," said Liu.
Hong Kong has been the first overseas market that Beijing is trying to attract funds from for the projects.
According to forecasts by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), it needs at least 30 billion Yuan (US$3.6 billion) to build new sports venues or improve existing facilities. The city itself will need some 180 billion Yuan (US$21.7 billion) to 300 billion Yuan (US$36.1 billion) for the Games, analysts estimate.
Liu stated that the Beijing Organizing Committee has taken into account the use of the sports venues and related facilitates after the Games so that investors can make a profit from their investment as soon as possible.
The city of Beijing has also promised to offer a wide range of incentives to investors including cheap land, lower tariffs and additional commercial developments. An example of such incentives is the National Stadium - the venue of the opening ceremony, closing ceremony and soccer finals -it is designed to host world and domestic sports events, soccer competitions or large entertainment performances. The operators can also make money by renting or selling facilities such as the VIP boxes and luxury seats.
The city of Beijing will also directly fund part of the estimated 3 billion Yuan (US$361 million) project, and provide incentives to non-government investors in terms of land usage and other areas, according to Liu.
The Beijing government has introduced the concept of "ownership" to bidders, which means winners will not only take care of the design and construction, but also the operation and management after the Games. It means a risk for investors on long-term sports venue operations, sometimes as long as 20 to 30 years.
The bidding process will last from now until July next year and is in two stages.
First, the pre-qualification stage calls for expressions of interest for tenders, and applicants are asked to submit all the required documents to the Olympic Projects Office before December 28. Only those who are selected qualify for the next stage.
The second stage will select the final winners.
All the construction work is expected to end by the middle of 2006, leaving about one-and-a-half years for trial runs.
Source: China Daily
Sports Agent Course Held In China
The Beijing Sports Committee (BSC) and the Municipal Industry and Commercial Bureau offered a sport agents course this fall.
To the great surprise of the organizers, applicants, not all of who were from sports circles, overwhelmed them. Lawyers, accountants, reporters, teachers and company managers all wanted to enroll in the class.
Even the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics uneven bars champion Ma Yanhong and women's basketball veteran Song Xiaobo were on the list.
The organizers had to slash the attendance to 165 in order not to affect the course quality.
After a series of training programs and exams, BSC granted to the students an agent qualification certificate, which is applicable to all sports events nationwide.
Since the 1984 Olympic debut, China's blossoming sports in the last two decades have attracted swarms of sharp-nosed foreign agents to share the potential fortune at stake behind the sports.
Ever since Philip Morris, who owns the Marlboro tobacco brand, changed the traditional Chinese soccer league into the Marlboro Soccer League in 1994, foreigners have gradually assumed a "monopoly" in this promising field in the world's most populous country.
An official with BSC, Deng Xu stated that "The government has not been very professional in the modern sports market operation and management," and "they have to shift part of their duty to the sports agents. Deng Xu also said that he believed with the emergence of sports agents, the nation's sports will be operated rather than controlled".
Source: Online-China Daily
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