Qatar plans 2016 Olympic bid
2006-09-28 07:55
Doha - Qatar, which is hosting the Asian
Games this year, plans to bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a
senior Qatari official said on Wednesday.
"We want to be one of the candidate cities for the 2016
games. We have expressed our interest and we hope to be
accepted," the Qatar National Olympic Committee official told
Reuters.
The official said the Gulf Arab state would be competing
with 12 other cities including Dubai, the regional tourism and
commercial hub, in the United Arab Emirates.
No Arab country has hosted the Olympics.
Qatar is staging the 2006 Asian Games in December. The
small Gulf Arab state has spent about $4bn on
infrastructure and sporting facilities before the two-week
event, according to official figures.
OPEC-member Qatar is home to world's third largest reserves
of natural gas and has been witnessing an economic boom fuelled
by high energy prices.
It has been investing heavily in mega-projects in sport,
education and real estate. The country is also home to the
state-funded maverick Arabic language news network Al Jazeera.
"We have already built our infrastructure, and what we
currently have is over and above the requirements for the
Olympics. But we will know more on how well our bid is doing by
this time next year," the official said.
- Reuters