Beijing Olympics go from flashy to
frugal By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - The 2008 Olympic Games enterprise has
become the latest showcase of the Chinese government's
shift toward a more balanced and people-centric approach
to economic development. In line with other
well-highlighted public gestures of frugality by top
leaders, Beijing has decided to trim excessive spending
on the Games' venues and show pragmatism in hosting the
world's most prestigious sporting event to be held in
the capital.
"It is not because of a problem
with capital or land supply," concedes Jiang Xiaoyu,
vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for
the Olympic Games. "The central leadership puts a strong
emphasis [on the concept] that we must base our work on
'putting people first'."
But frugality has not
always been Beijing's slogan for hosting the coveted
event. Two years ago when Beijing made public its
organizing plans for the Games, city leaders spoke of
their commitment to host "the best ever Olympic Games in
history". They promised world-beating Games featuring
top-notch Olympic venues, a greener city and a new
public transportation system - all at a cost of a
whooping US$37 billion.
However, much has
changed in the past two years.
Ever since the
new team of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao
spoke about intentions to address social inequality and
made known their aspirations for balanced rather than
rapid economic growth, lavish propaganda depictions of
the Beijing Games as a grandiose venture have been
scrapped. The new propaganda jargon emphasizes
"frugality" and describes the Beijing Games as a "Games
for the people".
The central government has been
trying to rein in a runaway economy that recorded a
phenomenal 9.6% growth in the first half of the year.
There are strong concerns now that overheating could
ignite inflation.
As part of a general austerity
drive, some of the most ostentatious Olympic projects
that had broken ground have come to a halt and now seem
likely to be scaled down. Among them are signature
architectural projects such as the "bird's nest"
National Stadium, designed by Swiss firm Herzog and
DeMeuron, the Australian firm PTW's "water cube"
national swimming center and the futuristic new
headquarters of Central Chinese Television (CCTV).
According to Ole Scheeren of the
Netherlands-based firm OMA, which designed the new
headquarters of CCTV, the central government spent
considerable time revisiting all mega projects and
reassessed fully the funds committed to the Olympic
effort by the previous leadership.
So
far the only prestigious public-works project
to emerge unscathed from the cull is CCTV's 530,000-square-meter,
$600-million mega building planned in the heart of
Beijing's central business district. Construction of the
controversial building in its original size and design
resumed in September - two years after the state
broadcaster officially announced that the central
leadership had approved the project.
By giving a
green light to the CCTV building - one of the few
Olympic projects that would actually be of long-term
benefit beyond the 2008 Games - China's top leadership
appears to be taking a more pragmatic approach toward
the ambitious building spree.
At least $2
billion had been earmarked to finance Beijing's
ultra-modern sports facilities. Now the city government
says five of the original 10 stadium projects would be
scrapped and some of the most ostentatious features of
remaining ones modified.
Instead of building new
venues to host ball games such as tennis, baseball,
badminton and others, Beijing would upgrade existing
venues for the events or make use of temporary
facilities, Liu Zhihua, vice mayor of Beijing said
recently.
Planned revisions to the design of the
National Stadium, nicknamed the "bird's nest" for its
latticework of steel girders, would scrap the
retractable roof and enlarge the opening on top of the
stadium. The new design would require less steel than
originally planned and will cost less than the initial
price tag of $422 million.
Also under review is
the transparent "teflon" membrane of the national
swimming center, designed to enclose the "water cube",
and the planned commercial retail space on the second
floor of the avant-garde Wukesong basketball stadium.
Beijing will "by all means save land, optimize
the designs of the venues and infrastructure facilities
and take all kinds of cost-cutting measures to avoid
overspending", Liu Zhihua was quoted as saying by the
state media.
In line with the new emphasis on
thrift, city planners have pushed target completion
dates for the majority of the Olympic venues back from
late 2006 to the second half of 2007. The move is
expected to minimize the running costs of completed
venues.
The International Olympic Committee
(IOC) has said it approved of Beijing's plans to scale
down or re-model some Olympic venues to save money. "For
us, there should not be what's called the white
elephant," Hein Verbruggen, chairman of the IOC's
coordination commission, said last week in Beijing. He
added, however, that a frugal Games for 2008 was more a
Chinese creation than an Olympic tradition.
"I
will have to look up in the dictionary what frugal Games
means," Verbruggen told the media. Yet the national bid
to cool an overheated economy is not the only factor
affecting Beijing's Olympic plans. Beijing takes the
Olympic flag over from Athens whose 2004 Olympic Games
were described by International Olympic Committee
president Jacques Rogge as the "Dream Games". Athens'
performance this past summer presents China with the
difficult task of outshining the exuberance of Greek
Olympiad without excessively spending on flashy sport
facilities.
Beijing's projected cost for hosting
the Olympics could be three times that of the Athens
Games. And while Athens spent heavily on new highways,
an ultra-modern international airport and a light-rail
line, most of the competitions were held in existing
facilities. The inevitable comparisons have not been
lost on Beijing's Olympics officials.
There is
little doubt that China can showcase its efficient
central-planning system by "effortlessly" staging the
Games, argues Chen Jian of the Beijing Olympics Economic
Research Association. Nevertheless, according to him,
Beijing's new benchmark of hosting a successful 2008
Games rests not only on efficiency but also on the wise
use of financial resources.
