Beijing to Better Sports Facilities in Meeting 2000 OlympicsBeijing's top municipal legislator is urging City Hall to support the capital's 2008 Olympics bid by spending more on developing and maintaining sports facilities.``Our application for hosting the Olympic Games in 2008 has come to an essential phase, and the conditions of our sports facilities will play a decisive role here,'' said Tao Xiping, vice-director of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Tuesday in Beijing. ``We should have not only plenty sports facilities for the daily exercises of our people, but also some of the best in the whole world,'' Tao said, concluding a People's Congress examination of local sports facilities. Beijing applied last month to the International Olympic Committee. The city is competing with Bangkok, Cairo, Paris, Havana, Istanbul and Osaka. Tao urged Beijing's local governments to raise money and build sports complexes as part of their infrastructure, to back the Olympics and to help social development. The capital's first local regulation on sports -- the January 1 Municipal Managerial Regulation on Sports Facilities -- says the city should encourage social organizations, busineses and individuals to contribute money to the sports facilities. But government funds remain the major source. Tao said the Municipal Government has done well in putting neighbourhood sports facilities on track for promising development. Beijing has nearly 6,000 sports facilities occupying altogether 19 million square metrrs, 220,160 of which were completed in the past three years, mostly in densely populated areas. Sun Kanglin, director of the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau, promised in his report to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee that Beijingers' thirst for sports facilities should be totally quenched in five more years. By then the per capita area of sports facilities of Beijing will go from 0.91 square meters to 1.1. Eighty per cent of Beijing's neighbourhoods will have an indoor playground of no less than 80 square meters, plus an outdoor one of at least 100, and every primary and middle school get its own playground. ``What we BMPC shall do is keep a close watch on the work and make sure it progresses according to the (city's sports) regulation,'' Tao said. |
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