May 7, 2009, 17:46 GMT
Madrid - Madrid expressed again Thursday its confidence in being chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games, and stressed that the ongoing financial and economic crisis would not prevent Spain from organizing the world's largest sports event.
'Here we can hold the Games with or without a crisis, with a very concrete argument: in this country, most of the investment has already been made,' said Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Spain's only representative in that organ.
Spain is in a deep recession, as are many other countries in Europe. The European Commission estimated this week that unemployment was set to reach 20 per cent in 2010.
In this framework, the bid put forward among its proposals a regime whereby the IOC would not pay tax in the potential Madrid 2016 Olympics.
Despite the doubts based on the financial crisis, bid officials insisted on their optimism Thursday, as they continued to host the IOC evaluating commission that had already reviewed rival bids from Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.
'They are impressed with the facilities,' said Mercedes Coghen, the bid's top official.
On Wednesday, the IOC commission toured existing facilities and projected sites for the event that Madrid is granted the Games at the IOC Assembly in Copenhagen on October 2.
The commission lost its leader, Nawal El Moutawakel, who received an emergency call from King Mohammed VI of Morocco over new sports legislation in the country. The former Olympic athlete El Moutawakel is Morocco's Sports minister.
Officials of the Madrid bid said she would be back in the Spanish capital late Thursday, to rejoin the IOC commission for their last day of work in the city.
Among their plans for Friday, the IOC commission was to have lunch with King Juan Carlos of Spain and tennis world number one Rafael Nadal.
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