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China plans to build more gymnasiums and stadiums for other developing
countries in the future to help the developing world promote sports,
the State Sports General Administration said.
"Although China itself is a developing country, we will continue
to provide aid to other developing countries to help them promote
sports," said Liao Qianhui, general manager of the China Sports
Industry Co-operation Company of the State Sports General Administration.
China has built more than 50 stadiums, gymnasiums and swimming pools
in the past three decades in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the
South Pacific, Liao said.
These efforts are sufficient proof that China can fulfill its pledge
to the Olympic Movement, Liao said.
In 1965, the China State Sports Commission, the former State Sports
General Administration, established an office in charge of aid to
foreign countries to construct sports facilities.
That office is now the China Sports Industry Co-operation Company.
The second year after the sports aid office was established, the
Cambodian State Stadium, the first stadium China built for other
countries, was completed.
Between 1966 and 1979, Chinese engineers and workers built two stadiums
and three gymnasiums in Cambodia, Mongolia, Zanzibar, Somalia and
Sierra Leone, according to the State Sports General Administration.
After the country began its economic reform and opened up to the
outside world in late 1970s, Chinese engineers have built scores
of sports centers in dozens of foreign countries, including Benin,
Mauritania and Gambia in Africa, Pakistan and Myanmar in Asia, the
Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
Among those gymnasiums and stadiums, the National Stadium of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Zaire, is the largest
with 80,000 seats.
China's contribution to the world sports development has been recognized
by the International Olympic Committee. In April 1986, Chairman
Juan Antonio Samaranch of IOC made a special visit to Beijing and
presented the Olympic Cup, the highest Olympic honor, to the Chinese
Olympic Committee.
(China Daily 05/17/2001)
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