IOC Evaluation Commission which came to China for inspection held an opening ceremony of a statement conference on 24 March. Liu Yandong, Chinese Vice Premier attended the ceremony and reiterated that, Chinese government would give full supports to Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, solemnly carry out all commitments declared in the Candidature File, and offer reliable guarantees for successful hosting of the Winter Olympic Games.
Liu Yandong mentioned in his opening speech that China was organizing implementation of Synergetic Development Strategy of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region at the moment to accelerate the integrative development of this area in all fields. The following actions are included in the Strategy—developing the line from Beijing to Zhangjiakou into a tourism zone of sports culture, accelerating infrastructure construction, and promoting ecological environmental construction. Those measures will bring clear sky and clean water to the Chinese people and create more advantageous conditions for the hosting of the Winter Olympic Games, to achieve good interaction between the Olympic games and the hosting cities and win-win results.
On the opening ceremony, Liu Peng, the president of the Chinese Olympic Committee and the director of General Administration of Sport of China, said that, with this chance of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Chinese Olympic Committee was accelerating the infrastructure construction of winter sports, conducting promotions of winter sports, encouraging participation of 300 million people, supporting wide-spread participation in winter sports, and improving people’s competence of winter sports.
At the same time, Wang Anshun, President of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Bid Committee and the Mayor of Beijing declared again that Beijing got the confidence to turn the 2022 Winter Olympic Games into an unforgettable “passionate date”.
Alexander Zhukov, Chairman of the IOC Evaluation Commission expressed that, Beijing has put the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020 into ideas of the Olympic Games. As one of the two candidate cities, Beijing will first benefit from Olympic Agenda 2020. Standing at the forefront of this new era, Beijing has lots of advantages. “You fully used the current world-level sports stadiums, made most use of experience hosting large-scale international events, and have specific Olympic heritage goals.”
Zhukov stressed that, the Evaluation Commission would finish the evaluation with an open mind and no prejudices. The Evaluation Commission expects to have a further knowledge of the usage of Olympic heritage in Beijing, how Beijing puts core concepts into practice, as well as how the development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei at a national strategic level accords with the bid of the Winter Olympic Games.