Hong Kong Intends to Bid for 2023 Asian Games
|
The Hong Kong government announced on Friday that they would support the sports authority in its potential bid for the 2023 Asian Games instead of the 2019 edition which was proposed first.
The Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing said the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) Government had decided to support the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China to submit a "letter of intent" to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to bid to host the 2023 Asian Games.
Noting that the OCA is inviting bidding intentions for the Asian Games in 2019 or 2023 until June 30, Tsang said the government's assessment showed that it would be more advisable to bid for the Games in 2023 than in 2019, which was first proposed during the East Asian Games last year.
"There are clear advantages in hosting the Asian Games in 2023," he said. "This would give us more time to develop good quality venues that would meet the needs of sports development in Hong Kong and that would also be suitable for hosting Asian Games events.
"The building program for the Asian Games would not overlap with the major infrastructure projects as many of them are expected to be substantially completed before 2023. It would also allow us to showcase a suite of new infrastructure projects to the rest of the world."
Hong Kong held the 5th East Asian Games in December 2009, which was the first time that an international multi-sport event came to the southern city of China.