Singapore, One-Time Medalist, Invites Sports Bids
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore, which has one Olympic medal to
its name, invited bids to build an S$800 million ($479.5 million)
national sports complex, the country's biggest contract of its
kind, in an attempt to foster more athletes.
The site, spanning an area the size of 48 soccer pitches, will
feature a 55,000-capacity stadium, a swimming arena with 6,000
seats, as well as education, research and training centers,
Singapore's Sports Council said in a statement today. Bids must be
submitted by March 2006. A winner will be named mid-2007.
The city-state, which won an Olympic silver in 1960, is taking
steps to improve its record. It opened a S$75 million sports school
in April last year and offered citizenship to China-born
table-tennis player Li Jiawei and Indonesia-born badminton player
Ronald Susilo. The Sports Council said today that Singaporeans
needed a new mentality.
``As a country, we are clearly known as a people who like to work
hard,'' Alex Chan, chairman of the Sports Council, told reporters.
``Playing hard should be part of the equation. We have to come
round to that.''
Chan said he hopes Singapore will be able to host the South East
Asian Games after 2011, when the complex opens. To have any chance
of succeeding, the site must ignite a passion for sport, which he
said doesn't yet exist among the country's 4.3 million
population.
`Powerhouses'
The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the top three medal winners
in the 2005 South East Asian Games, have become regional sporting
``powerhouses,'' said Oon Jin Teik, chief executive of the
Singapore Sports Council. Singapore ranked sixth in the Games, one
above Myanmar.
``We are way behind the competition,'' he said. Singapore's
counterparts in the region were ``a million miles'' ahead, he
said.
Singapore proposed the idea of a so-called Sports Hub in February
2003. At the time, the government put the cost at S$650 million.
Chan today said a figure of S$800 million would be
``reasonable.''
Asking private companies, either in the form of a group or a single
contractor, to build the complex offered Singapore taxpayers the
best value for money, said Chan.
This type of project, known as a Public-Private Partnership, was
born in the U.K. in the 1990s, said Mark Rathbone, an associate
director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which is advising the
Singapore government on the process.
Britain's Conservative governments under Margaret Thatcher and John
Major needed to invest in railways, roads and hospitals but didn't
have the funds. Bringing in private companies to foot the bill and
shoulder any risk of failure was the solution, Rathbone said.
Under the terms of the bid for the Singapore sports complex, the
winning group will design, build, finance and operate the site.
After the center opens, the Singapore government will repay the
group's costs over a 25-year period, Rathbone said.
