YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES:

(Impact, expenditure and future plans): The following Question stood in the name of Mr Zaqy Mohamad –

1. To ask the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) what is the final amount spent for the inaugural Youth Olympics Games (YOG); (b) why is the actual amount spent much more than initially budgeted; (c) what are the factors that contributed to this increase; (d) how does this compare with other Games conducted on a similar scale; (e) how does the Ministry rate its performance on the organisation of the YOG; and (f) what returns can Singapore expect from the amount spent on the programmes, talent, infrastructure and volunteers for YOG.

2.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports if he will provide his assessment of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and its legacy to Singapore, in particular how much was spent on the YOG and what are the short-term and long-term benefits of this public investment to Singapore and Singaporeans.

3.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) what are the Ministry's plans to further develop Singapore's sports industry following the successful organisation of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games; (b) what are the new infrastructure and programmes that the Ministry has planned to build a sporting culture involving as many Singaporeans as possible; and (c) what measures are in place to better optimise the sporting facilities in schools and other organisations for public use.

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4.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports what efforts will be made to develop our young athletes further to the highest levels and to nurture a sporting culture in our schools and in the wider community.

5.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) what are the plans to further develop the talents who have shown potential at the Youth Olympic Games and to ensure that these talents continue to develop and perform as they progress to national teams; and (b) how does the Ministry plan to manage the sporting careers of young male athletes during their period of National Service and to ensure that they are still able to compete at the highest level internationally and not lose time or motivation.

6.

Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) why is the final budget for the Youth Olympic Games more than triple the original estimate; (b) where were the additional funds drawn from; (c) whether any of his Ministry programmes were cut back for this purpose; and (d) what was the amount paid for the tickets purchased by the Ministry of Education and whether this was also part of the YOG budget.

Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): Question No. 1, Sir.

The Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Dr Vivian Balakrishnan): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos. 1 – 6 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: I thank Members for the many questions on the Youth Olympic Games (YOG). This is the largest international multi-sport event we have

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ever hosted. The YOG has placed Singapore on a new growth trajectory for the pursuit of sports excellence, strengthening our sporting culture and growing our sports industry. It has, in a sense, been a rite of passage that celebrated our position as a global city – providing services and competing with the best in the world. Before I elaborate on the YOG legacy, let me first pay tribute to the many people who made the Singapore 2010 YOG a resounding success.

First and foremost, credit should go to the workforce, the 30,000 volunteers and staff of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC), and many others from Government and non-Government agencies. Special commendation needs to go to the volunteers stationed at the frontline, running the competitions, greeting the visitors or showing them around, as well as many others working tirelessly in the background. Our volunteers have proven unequivocally that Singaporeans are gracious and hospitable. Our volunteers have shown that Singapore is capable of welcoming the world, with style, grace, cheerfulness and efficiency.

Next, the performance of our Team Singapore athletes at the YOG is something that all Singaporeans can be proud of. It is testament to our Singapore system that our young athletes are capable of competing head-to-head with the best in the world. Their determination and fighting spirit, both in claiming victory as well as in accepting defeat, captured the imagination of Singaporeans. It is this confidence and self belief that was on display that is crucial for our future, not just in sports but indeed for all our endeavours as a nation.

The YOG has also helped to rekindle spectator interest in sports. I would like to thank all the supporters who turned up at

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the torch relay, at the opening and closing ceremonies and at the sports venues not only to cheer our Team Singapore athletes, but also to appreciate the world class sporting talent that was on display. I apologise for the initial ticketing problems that we faced, but I am very happy that even more Singaporeans ultimately had the chance to watch these Games when we exercised greater flexibility during the Games.

Last but not least, I would like to pay tribute to our local companies involved in supporting the YOG, either as sponsors or service providers. They did Singapore proud by providing a very high quality level of service and top-notched infrastructure for the Games. Indeed, this was a total Singapore effort, and we did well collectively as Team Singapore.

Let me now discuss the budget. The total Government outlay for the YOG would come up to S$387 million. Approval for this expenditure was obtained from Cabinet, and additional funds provided by the Ministry of Finance. Consequently, it was not necessary to cut back on any of the other MCYS programmes in order for us to host these Games.

Our initial budget estimates during the bid phase were clearly inaccurate. We got it wrong. Let me explain how this came about. This was the first ever Youth Olympic Games in the world. Quite frankly, both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and us were starting from scratch. We, therefore, underestimated the requirements and consequential costs for several major functional areas which were necessary to host these Games. In fact, the finalised specifications and standards for the YOG events were only determined after we won the bid to host the Games. And if I may add, these were in fact, determined very late in the preparations for the Games. Each event was pegged at World

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Youth Championship level and all 26 International Federations representing each Olympic sport had to approve the detailed specifications.

To put things in context, we should look at the two most recent Olympic Games, as well as the next. The YOG that we hosted was about one-third the scale of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008 which featured 11,000 athletes. We had 3,600 athletes. Our projected expenditure for YOG was about 10% of Beijing's reported operating expenditure (S$3.9 billion, which excluded capital expenditure). So, one-third the size, but our spending was only 10% of Beijing's expenditure.

In fact, if we compared against the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games 2010, we had more athletes participating in YOG than in the Winter Olympics. But our expenditure would likely amount to only about 20% of what Vancouver spent (S$2.26 billion). If we look forward to two years from now, the reported provisional budget for the 2012 London Summer Olympics now stands at S$19.2 billion (9.3 billion pounds), including infrastructure. The point is, we spent a very small fraction of the expenditure which would be incurred in larger Olympic Games. This is despite the fact that we had one-third the number of athletes and that all the detailed specifications for infrastructure were pitched at world junior championship standard.

In the interest of transparency, let me go down one level in resolution and reveal more details for the budget. The budget consists of several key components. In the area of technology, the projected cost was about S$97 million. The Games were pitched at World Junior Championship standards. We, therefore, had to provide a highly accurate scoring system as well as a sophisticated computer system to disseminate and diffuse results instantly and "live" across 18 different competition

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venues throughout Singapore and to the entire world. This technology allowed us to officially capture and register 14 junior world records set during the Games. The system was also used to manage all the workforce data and the accreditation of all the nearly 370,000 visitors to 44 Games venues. We spent a lot on technology but the point I am making is that this was a state-of-the-art highly sophisticated system.

The next item was the upgrading of our sports venues and equipment needed to host the Games. This amounted to about S$76 million. These were essential to fulfil the requirements specified by the IOC and the International Federations, as well as to allow the Games to be broadcast "live" to the world, and, perhaps even more importantly, for these same venues to subsequently be used by Singaporeans after the Games.

Providing "live" broadcasts through multiple media as well as broadcasting the Opening and Closing Ceremonies that displayed Singapore's finest – both in terms of sports and creativity – accounted for another S$45.5 million. This enabled us to profile Singapore to a potential global audience of over 2.1 billion people. These are not my estimates. The IOC informed me of these estimates. They signed contracts with over 180 international broadcasters who then had rights to feed the sporting events as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies to their respective areas.

For the same reason, we also set aside S$7 million for the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame through the five continents before it arrived in Singapore. Initially, the IOC was not keen on having an International Torch Relay because of the controversy that surrounded the Torch Relay during the Beijing Olympics. However because this was the first ever Youth Olympic Games, and I think also because they had confidence in us being able to organise this and to get through

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without any major mishaps or any unnecessary political kerfuffle, they decided to make an exception. And so this Torch, which was lit in Ancient Olympia, travelled to five other cities before arriving in Singapore.

The YOG was a major logistics operation. Members would really need to go to the back of the house or to go to the warehouse at Changi to understand the mega logistics requirements. Logistics – which also included supply chain management, venue logistics, cleaning, waste management and transport – cost us about S$44 million.

The next critical area was security. Unfortunately, people still remember Munich for the wrong reasons, when athletes were killed. In our case, we had to do our best to ensure the safety of athletes, dignitaries and visitors. Security was a priority and people expected that of Singapore. Auxilary police and screening equipment were available that ensured that detailed security checks could be done, and yet, done without causing a lockjam, and done in a less intrusive way. Security cost us about S$18 million.

S$14.3 million went to the operational requirements such as language translation and interpretation, laundry, catering and other services at the Youth Olympic Village. Members need to understand that there were 3,600 athletes and another 1,700 officials from all over the world, speaking a wide variety of languages with great individual and customised demands. This was another major operation in its own right.

The Culture and Education Programme (CEP), which was a new and unique feature of our Games, accounted for another S$5.4 million. But through the CEP, the IOC hoped – and they are now convinced that they achieved the

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objective – to ensure that positive values and the appreciation of diverse cultures were transmitted to both the young athletes who were there as well as our own Singaporean youths who were part of that programme.

On the revenue side, our merchandise and ticket sales are expected to bring in about S$7 million. Why so low? Because we charged very low prices. I felt it was more important to ensure that we had made the Games accessible and affordable to Singaporeans rather than to maximise revenues. We received another S$60 million worth of sponsorships in kind from various companies and another S$7.6 million in cash sponsorship from companies like Samsung, ATOS, Panasonic and DBS.

Overall, the YOG was certainly not cheap. When it became clear during the course of the preparations that our initial estimates were wrong, I was confronted with two pertinent questions. First – if we had known that it would cost S$387 million, would we still have bid for the Games? The second question – if we spent S$387 million, will we get value from that expenditure?

In my mind, the answer to both these questions was "Yes". I was able to convince my Cabinet colleagues that the answer to both these questions was "Yes". This was why approval was given for us to spend this money to host these Games.

There was another alternative. I could have just blindly cut the budget and delivered sub-standard Games. I do not think that would have been the right decision. I do not think it would have been fair to our athletes, to the visiting athletes, to the IOC and, most importantly, I do not think it would have been fair to Singaporeans because at the end of the day, you would want to host something which would be a source of

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collective pride for all Singaporeans.

Now that the Games are over, our main focus has to be to make sure that the full benefits of organising and hosting these Games for Singapore are reaped. I want to thank the many Members in this House as well as many Singaporeans who had emailed me over the course of this journey over the last two-and-half years their suggestions and ideas on both organising the Games as well as how to maximise the legacy from the Games.

Let me spend a few minutes to talk about international branding because this is one of those key intangibles that accrues to an event like this.

Singapore will always be remembered as the country that hosted the world's first ever Youth Olympic Games. This is a rare honour. It is rare because there can only be one first host. If I ask Members to name the first host of the modern Summer Olympics, everyone will always remember Greece, Athens in 1896. If I ask Members to name the first host of the Winter Olympics, some here may remember France – Chamonix, 86 years ago. We are now in that same position; the first ever host. On all subsequent Olympic flags which are transferred to the host city, at the bottom right corner of that flag is embroidered "Singapore 2010". This will be a permanent legacy. It ensures that we will remain on the international community's radar screens. The next time anyone is making an investment decision, or are trying to decide where to site an international or regional headquarters, or deciding to expand their businesses overseas, they would have heard of or they may have visited us, and they would know that we stand for certain quality and reliability.

The YOG has therefore helped to effectively and positively profile Singapore to an international audience. Before, everyone knew that we are a safe and efficient city, but now everyone knows

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that we are a beautiful, vibrant, dynamic, exciting, creative global city where people from all over the world will want to visit, live, work, play or invest in.

So, we have to do it well, and to do it in a way that the world will sit up and take notice of us. The global viewership of the Games and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies has certainly helped to brand and feature Singapore over the 14 days. According to the IOC, the Games were watched by over two billion viewers. The IOC also reported that because of our heavy use of new media, the Youth Olympic Games Channel, the videos that were downloaded from YouTube – people's individual screens – exceeded five million times. That is double the downloads that the Vancouver Winter Olympics enjoyed. And at one point, the Youth Olympic Games Channel was the most watched YouTube channel worldwide. I can guarantee you that these are not achievements which come easily.

Let me now turn to the contributions to the local economy. The YOG provided considerable benefits for our local businesses. Of the overall budget of S$387 million, S$260 million worth of local contracts went to our local companies, which is about 70% of our projected expenditure. And another S$46 million went to overseas companies with local subsidiaries in Singapore. We hope that both our local companies as well as local subsidiaries of overseas companies will now leverage on their experience providing the services to further their own business interests and also to compete for other international projects that will arise all over the world.

The Singapore Tourism Board had earlier estimated that the YOG will bring in some S$57 million in additional tourism receipts. Visa International recently reported that spending on foreign Visa-branded payment cards in Singapore went up by some S$154 million during the Games period. This was a 38% increase

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over the same period the previous year. I think if you talk to any retailers or hoteliers in town, they will all tell you it was a good time.

Let me now turn to other benefits, specifically with respect to sports culture. It has laid a very strong foundation for building our sports culture, particularly in the areas of spectatorship, community involvement and, just as important, volunteer engagement. The officials from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), National Sports Associations (NSAs) and the volunteers were really the key people behind the Games. Our officials played a critical role in the preparations of our athletes as well. With this experience and the knowledge, and the networks that they have formed, Singaporeans – officials, volunteers and staff – are now better equipped than ever before to host international world class sports events as well as to prepare our athletes to compete at the highest level. SSC and the People's Association will continue to engage the pool of YOG volunteers so that they can offer their experience and expertise for future sporting and community events.

If Members do not mind, I cannot help but again highlight the fantastic performance of our volunteers. I had never seen people so passionately, so tirelessly, so enthusiastically going through their work, despite the fact that they were not being paid, and even the food was not necessarily the best in the world. They did so, not for my sake, certainly not for the Government's sake, but because they were proud of Singapore, and in their own quiet and effective ways, they wanted to do their bit to put Singapore on the map to show the world what a wonderful home Singapore is. That was, to me, a real life example of the Singapore spirit. And, quite frankly, at the end of this exercise, I ended up more confident about the future because I saw the Singapore spirit.

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The YOG also helped us to catalyse five new satellite centres for sports development. This will provide more opportunities for our children to try out sports in a fun and safe environment. We will set up satellite centres for all 26 Olympic sports.

Another legacy from the Games is that Singaporeans from all walks of life will benefit from the upgraded or new facilities, whether it is the Toa Payoh Sports Hall which has a new roof and railings, the Sports School which has a 10-metre air pistol range, or the new Tampines Bike Park, just to name a few.

Hosting the Games provided a good opportunity for us to reach out to our young Singaporeans. Through the YOG Culture and Education Programme, we reached out to 500,000 local students, to educate them about important global and sport issues, to contribute to the environment and society, and for opportunities to interact with other young people, some of whom came from countries we have never heard of before. So, we succeeded in transmitting the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. In fact, the Youth Olympic Village at NTU, quite frankly, and I might be taking the risk of being immodest here, was one of the best Olympic Villages comparable or even exceeding many in the full Summer Olympics. The participation by our school students was the key reason. The way they set up the world culture booths, the way they interacted, the way they presented themselves made a real impact, and I had lost track of the number of compliments I received from foreign athletes, officials and the IOC, about the fantastic performance of our school students. Again, it is another vote of confidence in our future.

The Ministry of Education purchased 87,000 tickets at a discounted price of $10 per ticket. They did so, so that the

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students would enjoy and be inspired by the spirit of the competition – a world class competition being held right in our neighourhood. It had also allowed students to support countries that they were twinned with under the Friends@YOG programme, and to also allow them to be gracious hosts and to support the countries that they had built a prior relationship with. This amount – 87,000 tickets x $10, so that makes S$870,000 – was not part of the YOG budget. It came from the Ministry of Education's budget. But they felt that this represented MOE's expenditure towards an activity which they believed would benefit students. It was part of the students' learning journey about sports events and experiencing the different cultures among the biggest gathering of nations in Singapore's history, represented by the 204 National Olympic Committees in Singapore at the same time.

Ms Irene Ng and Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked very relevant questions about our plans to develop our athletes for the future. The Singapore Youth Sports Development Committee, which is co-chaired by the Senior Parliamentary Secretaries, Mr Teo Ser Luck and Mr Masagos Zulkifli, has put in place a system to allow the NSAs, the schools and other stakeholders to build up a strong pipeline of future sports talent. The YOG had shown and, in fact, emphasised the absolute importance of having a pipeline of young talent. This Committee will continue to provide opportunities to young Singaporeans to discover their talents, nurture their talents and prepare them for competition on the world stage.

My Ministry and the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) also recognise the need to take a holistic view of athlete development. For talented national athletes, we will continue to track their development very closely and we will develop individualised plans to support

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them throughout the competitive phase of their careers, but, equally important, the post-competitive phase, because we need to assure parents that sports is not a dead end. Sports is a stepping stone to greater career heights for an individual. That is the only way we will get parents and young people to make the necessary sacrifices and investments in order to be the world's best in whatever particular sport they choose to pursue. At the apex of our sports pyramid, we will continue to look especially at athletes with the potential to win medals at the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016. Members again need to appreciate how far we have come, that we can even now contemplate more than one medal. It took us nearly four decades to win one medal two years ago. Now, we dare to have bigger dreams. We have made tremendous progress.

In parallel, I intend to form a committee to review our entire athlete development framework and to suggest ways to enhance the education and career options for national athletes. This study will take some time because I want it to be done in a deliberate and comprehensive way. But I hope we will have some further details to announce in six months' time.

Ms Irene Ng Phek Hoong (Tampines): Sir, I would like to commend the Minister and his team for delivering a successful YOG that did Singapore and Singaporeans proud. There were initial hiccups, as to be expected of such an international event of this scale and size. I think that the Minister and his team, like the athletes and volunteers, also showed the Singapore spirit in the way they worked to overcome the challenges and rose to show Singapore's resilience and determination.

Sir, having heard the Minister's explanation which was so detailed and which gave a clear view of why we spent so much on the YOG, can I ask the

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Minister whether these details could have been released before the YOG so that the public can fully rally around the YOG without the distraction of quarrelling over the figures and without wondering whether the investment is worthwhile?

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: I totally agree with the Member. In fact, I did release it before the Games. But, like I said, the problem was that this was a moving target and I did not want to release inaccurate figures or take the risk of having another under-estimate. So the figures came out rather late in the process. Nevertheless, it was released before the Games, because I did not want to have a situation where we presented you with the bill after everything was done, and then, there would be a second shock.

But I agree with the Member that we should always try to reveal details before an event, to be as open and transparent and accurate as possible. Having made the mistake of under-estimating the expenditure once, I did not want to repeat that mistake.

Er Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Mr Speaker. First of all, I would like to declare my interest as the President of Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA). The first question is: what is the budget that will be set aside for grooming our talented young athletes? Second question is, what is the role of National Sport Associations (NSAs) in the development of these young athletes and whether additional resources will be given to NSAs?

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Mr Teo Ser Luck): As the Minister has mentioned, we have a Youth Sports Development Committee that is chaired by Mr Masagos and I. The Committee prepared the Youth Olympic Games athletes for the YOG. They have

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exceeded our target, in terms of medal count and also performance.

As Members may be aware, we only yesterday made an announcement of what we intend to do in the future. It is to make sure that we establish a pipeline, a process of grooming and developing these promising athletes and even those who have not been able to represent Singapore at this time in any of the international games, but may be identified later – those late bloomers – that we can train them within the school system, subsequently if they go to the Sports School, they can benefit from the curriculum and after that, possibly going through the process within the Sports Institute. This would have to be a joint effort between NSAs, Sports Council, Sports School as well as Sports Institute so that we make sure that we track their performance from a very young age all the way until they graduate from school. Even when they are working, they can continue their journey as a sportsman.

After that, we must also ensure that we take care of their post-sports career. I think the key question that the Member asked was how much. The budget is a work in progress. I cannot tell her a specific amount today because it is a big massive project.

As Members know, for YOG athletes, through the Committee of Youth Sports Development, we had budgeted $6.2 million to prepare the athletes for the YOG and another $2.5 million were set aside for the satellite centres for all Olympic sports, to be set up all over Singapore, so that young people can learn about the sports, can learn to play and then subsequently identify them. But as Members can see year-on-year, annual funding for NSAs has been on the rise. Even indirectly, they get the benefits of other types of sports services that the Sports Council supplied. If we look at the direct funding and indirect benefits through the SSC services, if we calculate

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the total, there is an increase. I am very sure that STTA does get an increase in funding.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Hong Kah): I would like to congratulate the Minister for a job well done for the YOG. I would like to enquire on my question 5(b) with respect to how we manage youth sporting talent development as they pass through National Service. I do not think that was covered in his speech. The second question I have is, I do understand that the requirements for the YOG did come in late. How do we ensure that we will not overcharge for some of these services or products that we purchased at the last minute? How do we ensure that we did not over-scope given that the notice was short and that the Games were around the corner?

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: The Member is right. I missed his question on National Service. I am not here to make any changes in policy on National Service. I think all Members know that National Service is a universal obligation for all Singaporean males. However, MINDEF does try its best to exercise flexibility. For instance, depending on the potential of the Singaporean athlete to win a medal in international games and depending on the four-year cycle, sometimes, MINDEF allows a deferment or a postponement of enlistment but we cannot reach a situation where we entirely discount National Service in favour of someone's sporting career. Unfortunately, this is a price that we pay for the security and success of Singapore.

His next question relates to the fact that the requirements scope came in late. The fundamental challenge that we faced was that we only had two and a half years to prepare for these Games. Again, to give Members an idea of scale for the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics – and I remember the Winter Olympics has even fewer athletes than

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the Youth Olympic Games – the host countries are given up to seven years to make preparations. Nanjing, the next host of the Youth Olympic Games, is being given four plus years to make preparations. So the fact that we had to scramble hopefully will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, both for the IOC as well as for us.

The Member is absolutely right – because we were scrambling and under intense time pressure, to what extent were we held hostage because of time and even more dangerous, did we over-scope because we did not have the time to argue? These were questions that I kept asking myself. All I can say on this count is – and Members can check with our Organising Committee and even with the IOC – I have been the most unpleasant Minister in asking the most awkward questions and placing enormous pressure on my staff to make sure that we did not spend money unwisely or loosely. The other point, of course, was to make sure that we continued to consult widely with people in the know which means the sports industry as well as consultants from overseas. For example, the sports technology needed to record timings. Yes, we had to use the systems by Omega and ATOS because they are top sponsors of the Olympic Movement and they, in effect, are the de facto standards for timing and scoring systems. Nevertheless, we did bargain very hard with them. They did become sponsors for us as well and they did discount their prices. We did make sure that they worked with our local companies who then would also have benefited from technology transfer and also be in a position to be able to tell me if anyone felt that we were being fleeced. I think at the end of the day, Singaporeans are sensible, pragmatic, rational and sometimes quite calculative. I do not think we got fleeced.

Mr Speaker: Ms Sylvia Lim, last question.

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Ms Sylvia Lim (Non-Constituency Member): Thank you, Sir. I have three supplementary questions for the Minister. Sir, I would like to bring the Minister back to the original budget which was US$75.5 million or roughly S$110 million. I would like to ask for an elaboration of the due diligence that went into preparation of that original budget. Earlier, the Minister mentioned that there were two big items in the budget – technology which was S$97 million and sports and venues which were S$76 million. Together these two items already made up S$173 million and I would imagine that these items are foreseeable expenditures for the Games. So I would like the Minister to elaborate on why our original budget was so low when these two items were clearly big- ticket items.

Secondly, the IOC Report in 2008, reported in the various cities bidding for the Games, showed that there were five bidders and we were actually fourth in terms of our budget, ie, the three other cities bid much higher to host the Games. I wonder if the Minister also noted that Moscow who was competing with us at the end, their budget was more than double of ours originally. So does the Minister actually agree with a comment by his Permanent Secretary that perhaps we were a bit naive in our initial estimates for the budget? And the last question is that now that the Games are over, there have been anecdotal evidence of events which were poorly attended, and so on. So I wonder if his Ministry has had a chance to do an assessment of wastage costs that were incurred during the YOG.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Thank you for the questions. I am not in any position to defend our under-estimation. The Member is quite right. When we compared ourselves to the other bidders and, in particular, at the end when it came down to Moscow versus us, the Moscow budget was somehow on the dot. But Moscow has hosted many Olympic

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Games. It has hosted Olympic Games before. It has hosted Youth Games before. They have the facilities and they know what they are doing. In our case, if I ask Members, when was the last time we hosted an international multi-sport event before 2008; Members will scratch their heads and go back, I think, to 1993, the SEA Games. I am giving an explanation and not an excuse. We were plain wrong. She is quite right.

If Members look just at the cost of feeding people, moving people, transport and logistics – that already was over $40 million. Then we take into account technology. Technology, we have a reason to under-estimate because we did not think at that point in time that we were going to host the Games which were at world's standard with world-class timing and information systems.

So I have no excuse for getting it wrong the first time. But I instead am trying to focus on the relevant question which was put to me after it emerged what would it really cost, which is: "if you knew it was going to cost $387 million, would you bid for the Games?" and, second, "would you get $387 million worth of value from the Games?" And once I was convinced that the answer to both those questions was "yes", I had to proceed. The other thing was to keep faith with Singaporeans, and that is why, as Ms Irene Ng recommended, I was transparent and I revealed these numbers to Singaporeans before the Games. So, yes, we took heat for that. But it is much better to take heat for being transparent rather than to present people with a fait accompli.

Were there some events which were poorly attended? In the initial phase, the first couple of days, we had a very peculiar phenomenon when tickets were sold out and because I was there I could see that there were still seats available. That was due to a combination of rigidity

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in our sale system. We sold tickets for an entire session but people may only be interested in certain segments of that session. Secondly, like Parliament, some people come late, some people leave early, it is very hard to ensure that even Parliament has a full House all the time. I then had to break Olympic protocol and put my foot down and say, "No. I am going to sell extra tickets as long as there are seats in the house." Yes, I am going to take the risk. When I do that, there will be legitimate ticket holders who would then show up and say, "I have a ticket. Where is my seat?"

I decided to take that risk and I also stated without approval of the IOC that if that situation arose, these legitimate ticket holders will sit in the seats which had hitherto been reserved for officials and if need be, I would tell the officials, "I am sorry, we don't have seats for you anymore." I did this, as I said I broke rules, and may have stepped on some toes. But I did it because I did not want to deprive Singaporeans of an opportunity to watch these Games. By that point, it had also become very clear that my initial worries that the Games would not be of interest to Singaporeans were completely unfounded. In fact, I received more complaints from people who could not get into the Games than people who were not interested in the Games. So in a sense, this was a problem of success. There were some non-sporting events, for instance, nightly concerts at the Bay. All of us have done events at the grassroots level. Once you set up a stage, your marginal cost of leaving the stage there for each subsequent day is actually very low. We said, "Well, we might as well put a stage for the entire duration of the Games."

On weekends and particularly when there were a few very 'hot' items, which were very popular among young people we had thousands of people, on seats or even standing around. On weekdays, or with groups which were

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less well-known, there would be empty seats.

I went down on a day that the site was relatively empty. I asked the organisers and then myself, "should I pack up the whole place? Since there was low demand on Tuesday, shall I cancel the entire thing? Or in fact, should I treat this as incremental marginal cost; allow the show to go on and know that there would be certain days and certain acts for which there would be a full house?" In the end, the site was not full on everyday, but there were certain weekends and certain performances in which all the seats were used. So I thought it was still money well spent.