Hambantota, the Candidate City for Commonwealth Games in 2018

HAMBANTOTA 2018 BID HAS BUILT TRUST IN CAPABILITY TO DELIVER LIFE-CHANGING GAMES

10 November 2011 – On the eve of the vote to decide the host city of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the leaders of the Hambantota 2018 bid have said they have built a strong trust in Sri Lanka’s capability to deliver a life-changing Games.

At a packed press conference Hambantota 2018 Organising Committee Co-Chairman Ajith Nivard Cabraal said that over time they had shown beyond doubt that they can deliver the new Sports City to host the Games.

“At first, maybe there were some who did not believe that we had the capacity to achieve such an ambitious plan, but now those doubts have been largely eliminated,” he said. “That is why we can say we are cautiously optimistic that our bid can win.”

The vote to decide whether Hambantota or Australia’s Gold Coast will host the Games takes place tomorrow, the penultimate day of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) general assembly on the Caribbean island of St Kitts. Yet regardless of the outcome – announced at 18:00pm local time – the Sri Lankans will develop all but one venue and all infrastructure which will see Hambantota a strategic hub for economic development and regeneration initiatives.

The Sri Lankan government is committing 6.5 percent of GDP annually to infrastructure improvements; the Games related investments fall within this financial framework. The new seaport, international airport, and road & railway upgrades come as part of a US$ 21 billion investment by the Sri Lankan government throughout the country over the next five years. The US$ 1 billion to be invested in the Games itself represents just five percent of what the government will be spending anyway.

Underlying this is a robust financing structure and comprehensive guarantees, including that of the Presidential Secretariat covering any shortfall in the self-funding Organising Committee (OC) budget and extending to all private investments in the non-OC budget.

“The funding of the development programme to transform the country and the Hambantota region has substantial and long-term political and financial commitment,” added Cabraal, also Governor of the Central Bank and affectionately dubbed ‘the bidding banker’ by some commentators in St Kitts and Nevis. “As a unified nation, we are on an exciting and progressive journey. Bidding for the Games is an important part of that. It is catalyst for sustainable development. The government is committed to building a better tomorrow for all our people; and we are building Hambantota as a future ‘metro city’ as I speak.”

Those behind Sri Lanka’s Hambantota 2018 bid to host the Commonwealth Games have spoken of a Rooseveltian philosophy underpinning the bid. “If we build it, they will come…” sums up a vision that promises to rejuvenate not only the fast-developing coastal city in the south of the ‘island jewel of the Indian Ocean’ – but of the region and entire country.

As one of five future metro-cities Hambantota will feature prominently in the country’s regeneration programme. It will be home to a thriving international business and investment centre with a focus on education and sport – the latter being one of the identified growth drivers for the country. The seven year national plan developed by the Sports Ministry will further enable this ambition to be realised, ensuring elite and participation sport will be a key part of the lives of Sri Lankans and directly supported by the Hambantota facilities. The city’s population is forecast to reach 1.2 million by 2018, with some eight million living within 2.5 hours drive.

Work is already underway on the ‘utopian’ Sports City that will house 90 percent of all ‘designed to measure’ venues – described by the CGF as the one of the most compact Games concept designs ever. It is unique in Commonwealth Games experience and brings significant savings in many operational areas such as transport, logistics, waste management, and security as well as the opportunity to design the venues to ease overlay and spectator amenity requirements. In legacy mode, it will become a centre of excellence and pivotal to the development of Sri Lankan athletes; a university campus will house 8,000 students and academic staff; and the condominium units to evolve from the Games Village will have a vibrant resident population of 8,000.

Work has also progressed on 55km of brand new highway and upgrades to 297km of existing highways; the Southern Highway, connecting the Southern Province to Colombo in less than three hours, is due for completion in 2013. There is an extensive investment in rail, including a new rail line through the heart of the Southern Province. The new US$1.2 billion seaport opened in April 2011, with the final phase to be complete by 2014. And Hambantota International Airport is scheduled to open in 2012, with completion of Phase II of the development coming in 2017.

According to Hon. Namal Rajapaksa, son of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Member of Parliament for Hambantota District, the Games will create 100,000 jobs in the region and inject around GBP five billion into the economy. “Our bid has grown stronger and we have demonstrated our capability to succeed,” he said.

The decision will be announced by outgoing CGF President Mike Fennell tomorrow, Friday 11 November at 18:00 local time. It will be his last official act as CGF President after 17 years in the role, before handing over to HRH Prince Tunku Imran of Malaysia.

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