Taipei to bid to host 2019 Asian Games

Mar 23, 2010, 13:07 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan's capital Taipei will bid to host the 2019 Asian Games, sports officials said Tuesday.

'We will submit the bid to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on March 31. OCA will select the winning city at its general assembly in April next year,' Yang Chih-sung, from the Chinese-Taipei Olympic Committee, said.

Taiwan press said Singapore and five other cities - Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Colombo, Hong Kong, Hanoi - also want to bid to host the 2019 Asian Games, but Yang denied knowledge of it.

'Only after these cities have submitted the bids, can we know who are the bidders,' he said.

Sun Ching-chuan, a Taipei City Government sports official, said that since 1990 Taipei has been trying to win the right to host Asian Games, but failed each time, mainly due to opposition from China as Beijing sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and wanted to isolate Taiwan.

'Now that Taipei-Beijing tension has eased, so I am very confident that we can win the bid,' he said by phone.

Taipei plans to spend 15 billion Taiwan dollars (417 million US dollars) on building the main stadium and other competition venues in and around Taipei.

Asian Games are held every four years, with some 10,000 athletes from the 45 OCA members participating in some 40 sports.

The 16th Asian Games were scheduled to be held in 2018, but OCA has switched it to 2019 so that starting from then, Asian Games can take place one year ahead of the summer Olympic Games.

The 2010 Asian Games will be held in Guangzhou, China, in November, while the 2014 Asian Games will be held in Incheon, South Korea.

If Taiwan wins the bid to host the 2019 Asian Games, it will be the biggest multi-sports event held on the island.