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Saturday 20 June 2009
1b yuan Olympics profit excludes venues’ construction cost
The mainland says it made an operating profit of 1 billion yuan (HK$1.13 billion) hosting the Beijing Olympics - but the figure excludes the construction cost for the venues, a long-awaited National Audit Office report said yesterday.
1b yuan Olympics profit excludes venues’ construction cost
Raymond Li 20 June 2009
The mainland says it made an operating profit of 1 billion yuan (HK$1.13 billion) hosting the Beijing Olympics - but the figure excludes the construction cost for the venues, a long-awaited National Audit Office report said yesterday.
The Beijing Games wowed the world with extravaganza and organisation. However, the unprecedented national mobilisation and single-minded pursuit of grandeur led many to worry about budget blowouts at the expense of taxpayers.
The audit office has been under mounting pressure to publicise the report, which many hope will shed light on the scale of spending since Beijing won the bid in 2001.
The report said the organising committee for the Beijing Olympics (Bocog) had made 20.5 billion yuan in revenue by March 15 this year, 800 million yuan more than expected from a profit split with the International Olympics Committee, sponsorship, merchandising and ticket sales. It also reported a total outlay of 19.43 billion yuan for venue upgrades, television broadcasting, accommodation and personnel.
Auditors acknowledged a cost of 19.49 billion yuan to finance 102 new venues and training camps, but failed to reveal spending in other areas such as environment and security.
Economists earlier estimated that Bocog would need 400 billion yuan including costs to clean the environment and basic infrastructure to stage a decent Olympic Games.
Beijing Institute of Technology professor Hu Xingdou said that was a fair estimation, but there was no point in discussing if the Beijing Olympics made a profit or how much was lost “because money was never a top priority for the country to host the Games”.
“The Olympics were regarded as the country’s coming out onto the world stage and to achieve that goal the government was willing to spend as much as it needed,” he said. “Look at the number of roads that were built and how many police officers were ferried to Beijing.”
The secrecy over some Olympics spending raised concerns over official corruption after the downfall of Beijing’s former vice-mayor Liu Zhihua in 2006. Liu 60, who was in charge of the municipality’s Olympic construction office, was given a death sentence suspended for two years in April this year for graft.
Auditors admitted that irregularities were uncovered, but most of the problems were solved.
However, the National Stadium, or “Bird’s Nest”, was over budget by 456 million yuan due to the complexity of the engineering work and price increases for raw materials.
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1b yuan Olympics profit excludes venues’ construction cost
Raymond Li
20 June 2009
The mainland says it made an operating profit of 1 billion yuan (HK$1.13 billion) hosting the Beijing Olympics - but the figure excludes the construction cost for the venues, a long-awaited National Audit Office report said yesterday.
The Beijing Games wowed the world with extravaganza and organisation. However, the unprecedented national mobilisation and single-minded pursuit of grandeur led many to worry about budget blowouts at the expense of taxpayers.
The audit office has been under mounting pressure to publicise the report, which many hope will shed light on the scale of spending since Beijing won the bid in 2001.
The report said the organising committee for the Beijing Olympics (Bocog) had made 20.5 billion yuan in revenue by March 15 this year, 800 million yuan more than expected from a profit split with the International Olympics Committee, sponsorship, merchandising and ticket sales. It also reported a total outlay of 19.43 billion yuan for venue upgrades, television broadcasting, accommodation and personnel.
Auditors acknowledged a cost of 19.49 billion yuan to finance 102 new venues and training camps, but failed to reveal spending in other areas such as environment and security.
Economists earlier estimated that Bocog would need 400 billion yuan including costs to clean the environment and basic infrastructure to stage a decent Olympic Games.
Beijing Institute of Technology professor Hu Xingdou said that was a fair estimation, but there was no point in discussing if the Beijing Olympics made a profit or how much was lost “because money was never a top priority for the country to host the Games”.
“The Olympics were regarded as the country’s coming out onto the world stage and to achieve that goal the government was willing to spend as much as it needed,” he said. “Look at the number of roads that were built and how many police officers were ferried to Beijing.”
The secrecy over some Olympics spending raised concerns over official corruption after the downfall of Beijing’s former vice-mayor Liu Zhihua in 2006. Liu 60, who was in charge of the municipality’s Olympic construction office, was given a death sentence suspended for two years in April this year for graft.
Auditors admitted that irregularities were uncovered, but most of the problems were solved.
However, the National Stadium, or “Bird’s Nest”, was over budget by 456 million yuan due to the complexity of the engineering work and price increases for raw materials.
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