117TH INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SESSION (Economic costs and benefits)

117TH INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SESSION:

(Economic costs and benefits): 1.

Miss Penny Low asked the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (a) what are the economic costs and benefits generated by the recent hosting of the International Olympic Committee in Singapore; and (b) how can we reap further benefits from the event.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin: Column: 1115 ****

Osman) (for the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports): Mr Speaker, Sir, the 117th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) thatSingapore hosted recently was one of the biggest international sports meeting. In fact, it has been described by some as the "next best thing to hosting the Olympic Games themselves".

Singapore has benefited from hosting the event. The Singapore Tourism Board had projected that it generated some S$40 million in economic spin-offs, including an estimated S$19 million in tourism receipts covering tourism-related industries such as retail, food and beverage, accommodation and recreation. This is a good return, considering that the expenditure incurred in organising the event was about S$7 million.

The media coverage from the event is another unquantifiable but important measure of the benefit to Singapore as the event was covered by top broadcasters from around the world, such as the BBC and the CNBC. Singapore was also given an opportunity to showcase our city, prior to the announcement of the Olympic Games host city on 6th July 2005. The "live" telecast of a 2-minute video on Singapore was estimated to have reachedsome onebillion viewers worldwide. The video will also be used beyond the IOC Session, and will be shared with Government agencies and Singapore companies that wish to use it to promote Singapore overseas.

There are also other significant benefits to our local sporting fraternity. For one, the presence of international sports federations and renowned athletes provided valuable opportunities in the exchange of views, and sharing of expertise with our local athletes and officials. The links established will go a long way to building up our own international network of regular exchanges. Several international sports federations have expressed positive

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interest in holding world and regional championships in Singapore, and our National Sports Associations are following up on that.

The tremendous publicity generated by the high-profile IOC Session has also put Singapore on the world map and helped to enhance Singapore's reputation as an efficient and safe place to host major events. And this would include large conventions and major international games. Singapore is well-positioned to build on this strong foundation. We believe that the extensive media coverage has significantly raised the awareness ofSingapore around the world, and that our warm hospitality would also encourage return visits by the delegates and supporters of the IOC event.

Miss Penny Low (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Sir, in terms of the sporting arena itself, what sort of links do we expect to see arising from this event? With the appointment of Mr Ng Ser Miang as one of the IOC council members, what does that imply for Singapore?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, let me take the second question first. I wish to congratulate Mr Ng Ser Miang on his election to the IOC Board, because it reflected significantly his contributions to the international sporting fraternity, and all of Singapore should be proud of his achievements.

As regards implications on what that means, I think it will continue to position Singapore as aviable international sporting hub because he will represent himself no doubt but he will definitely carry the Singapore flag wherever he goes in the international sporting fraternity.

With regard to what else will happen, I think the IOC session also provided a unique platform to position Singapore as a very compelling hub for international federations and sports related companies

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to locate here. For example, at a meeting held with some sporting officials from IOC, SSC, EDB, SNOC, the Association of Summer Sports International Federation and the NFAs, members discussed the possibility of staging sports events including International Federation Asian offices, training academy, coaching centres and organising annual meetings in Singapore. For example, the 2005 International Sailing Federation (ISAF) annual conference will be held here in Singapore later this year, between 3rd and 13th November. The ISAF has also agreed, in principle, that their Asian headquarters will be based in Singapore. Having the ISAF Asian headquarters, it will certainly help us to bring more top events to Singapore.

The Asian Athletics Association (AAA) is also considering basing its operationsin Singapore, while the International Badminton Federation is also looking at housing their global training centre here in Singapore. So the spin-offs are quite significant. There are a lot of international federations who are looking at Singapore to be their Asian base to spin off their operations in Asia.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo (West Coast): Sir, I would like to ask whether this whole experience of the staging of the IOC meeting has actually thrown up any learning lessons for Singapore in terms of our service delivery and the areas of lapses. If so, how can we go about improving ourselves?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir,the organising committee will be doing its own post-mortem. I have not had information on the outcome of their post-mortem. But, certainly, from media reports, we have seen significant positive feedback, not just from participants of the conference itself but also from the public as well as others who were here. Certainly, there will be lessons that we can learn in terms of how to improve in the staging of

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such an event. But this being the first time, I think there were a lot of accolades that had gone to the organising committee in terms of the way Singapore had actually been able to organise such a massive event.

Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah): Sir, the IOC initially announced that there would be a 3-minute video show costing $450,000 but, finally, it was reduced to a 2-minute show. Is there any good reason why the 3-minute video show was cut down to 2 minutes and whetherthe cost had been reduced too?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, I do not have the information on the cost, but I do not think it costs that much to produce that 2-minute video. In terms of the time which was reduced from 3 minutes to 2 minutes, I think it was really an issue of logistics. Because of the time that was available for the screening of the video as well as the announcementthey would probably have taken into consideration what was possibly viable at that point. It was really more of an administrative and logistical issue in terms of broadcasting than anything else.

Miss Penny Low: Sir, given the high publicity and the links that have been established, are there concrete plans by MCYS to promote sports in Singapore and to build on the current momentum?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, the strategies of MCYS with regard to sports have been mentioned in the House several times. There are three broad strategies. One is Sports for All; second; Sports Excellence and Team Singapore; and, third, the sports industry. I think there have been good movements in all directions but, significantly, arising out of the IOC event, it is really the development of the sports industry further. I think thereare lots of excellent new marquee events that have come up here and have generated interest in many other sponsors

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to actually develop marquee events.The Standard Chartered Marathon, for example,started in 2002 with about 6,000 participants but in two years, in 2004, it attractedover 14,000 participants. And it has also generated greater interest in other marquee events like the J C Morgan Corporate Challenge which saw, for the first time,over6,000 participants in its inaugural race. There has been significant movement in both the other thrusts but, specifically, arising out of this, we are seeing interest in developingour sports industry further.