Asiad on track despite crisis: Thailand

Asiad on track despite crisis: Thailand

BANGKOK (Reuters): Thailand said yesterday it would be ready to hold the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok as scheduled in December despite budget cuts, regional economic turmoil and some sponsor threats to pull out.

The Thais have hosted three previous Asiads but have been struggling to overcome various problems, particularly delays in building sporting venues, since being awarded the games in 1990. They have been warned several times by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to step up efforts or risk losing the right to host the games.

Santiparb Tejavanija, deputy secretary-general of the organizing committee, played down yesterday recent reports that the region's economic turmoil had put the games into jeopardy with several sponsors pulling out.

"I think it's a misunderstanding," he said in an interview. "I can assure you up to this moment there's no sponsor pullout.

He denied local media reports that telecommunications company Samart Corp was going to reduce its US$10 million sponsorship by $2.0 million.

He said the organizing committee, BAGOC, had refused Samart's request to cut its sponsorship amount. The two sides were trying to negotiate a compromise.

"This has to do with the dignity of the country," Santiparb added. "Everything will go according to plan."

He said the budget for the Games had been slashed to 2.08 billion baht ($38.1 million) -- the third time it had been pared down since an original estimate of about 3.5 billion.

An OCA spokesman, who also denied that Bangkok was in danger of losing the games, said the cuts were not too worrisome.

"You have to put the budget cuts in some sort of context," he said. "There isn't a single Olympic Games that hasn't been subject to cuts."

"The OCA is maintaining a constant and very detailed dialog with BAGOC to ensure that none of the events or any of the venues would fall below standards."

And he said talk of major delays in some of the venue sites -- one of the main problems that resulted in OCA intervention and threats in the past -- was unfounded.

"Under no circumstances will the Asian Games fall below the strictly supervised quality standards," he said. "They've set tough criteria for BAGOC to adhere to for the facilities ... to ensure that they are ready with sufficient leeway."

But BAGOC has been fraught with venue-related problems, including the collapse of the roof of the Asian Games swimming pool last month just as OCA officials were visiting Bangkok.

Santiparb admitted that the venues being built by Bangkok Land -- including a multipurpose indoor stadium, a rugby field and tennis courts -- were running behind schedule.

But he said the various venues should be completed by late August.

Bangkok Land, which received controversial loans sponsored by the government to ensure it would complete the project, said it had credit lines of 2.0 billion baht from Siam Commercial Bank and 800 million from the Government Savings Bank.

But transportation could prove to be a headache in congested Bangkok, after a $3.2 billion mass transit project by Hopewell Holdings was canceled due to repeated delays. Part of it was supposed to have been ready for the games.

One bright impact of the economic turmoil in Thailand -- where the baht has lost more than 54 percent of its value against the dollar since July -- is that most of the revenue coming in is in dollars, and expenditure is in baht.

"So the baht's devaluation will be beneficial to the organizing committee," said Santiparb, who is even hoping for a budget surplus from the Games.

A record 10,000 athletes are expected for the Dec. 6-Dec. 20 Asian Games -- the biggest sporting event in the region and second largest in the world after the Summer Olympics.