Should Sri Lanka stage the Asian Youth Games 2017?

Tuesday, 6 May 2014 00:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I was surprised to read in yesterday’s media that Sri Lanka is in danger of losing the rights of hosting the Asian Youth Games 2017. If we track back around two years back, Sri Lanka convinced the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) that Sri Lanka wished to stage the games in Hambantota so that we could showcase to the world the country’s infrastructure facilities, together with the opportunities the world has to connect to an economy that the ADB and World Bank predict will grow at 7.4% and 7.3% respectively in 2014/15. Progress after 1½ years The report says that based on the fact-finding mission by Wei Jizhog, the Life Vice President of Olympic Council of Asia in March 2014, their concluding remarks were that Sri Lanka was well behind the preparation schedule even though there is a very promising global plan which is a big challenge. When I saw that I thought it would be opportune to pick up the key lessons the world has seen from earlier games that have been hosted by countries across the world. Let me capture the essence.

Pick-up 1: Why stage large events? If we take the great Athens Olympics, the original budget was at $ 4.8 billion and finally the bill came to a colossal $ 12.5 billion, which shaved off two percentage points of EU economy’s GDP. The games did nothing to add value to brand Greece other than being cited as a case study around the world on how not to organise an Olympiad. On the other hand, if we take the Beijing Olympics of 2008, the country ran up a staggering bill of $ 40 billion but post the games when the analysis was done it was not a cost to the Chinese Government but an investment towards building the required infrastructure on the ‘urbanisation drive’ that was required for the 750 million Chinese who had come to live in Beijing from rural China. Hence the 40 billion dollar investment was part of the economic agenda rather than just a cost to stage the Olympics. This included the sewerage system, transport, entertainment centres and the famous bird’s nest stadium that became part of the University of Beijing later on. Sri Lanka needs to do the same if we are serious about staging the 2017 Asian Youth Games. The investment must be part of the bigger agenda of developing Hambantota as a commercial hub of South Asia. We must keep in mind that it was not a long time ago when India pumped in an estimated $ 6 billion into the Commonwealth Games. The plan backfired and in fact embarrassed brand India and took the shine off as an emerging super power of Asia. Sri Lanka must not fall into this same trap and we must be very clear on the broader objective before embarking on this challenging task. Pick-up 2: Agree on big picture If I once again take the successful Chinese Olympic Games model to explain this point, at the drawing board stage around 10 years back China drew up the five-year Master plan and agreed on the key steps required on the urbanisation agenda. For instance, the transport requirement included the need for the Beijing Subway and the Tianjin Expressway was required to be upgraded so that the 750 million commuters could spruce up the Beijing economy based on efficiency, which was the bigger picture of China’s economic agenda. Sri Lanka must do the same as I can see the contour of Hambantota taking shape, from the Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa to the Magampura Port that is slowly getting traction for offloading vehicles and attracting luxury cruise liners and in the near future a top international university setting up, not to forget Shangri La Hotel. Given that the Southern Highway has already happened, I guess the basic infrastructure is in play for the next stage development agenda that can happen in Hambantota. This will be similar to the Beijing hidden agenda that it had when staging the 2008 Olympics Games. The big question is, can Sri Lanka afford this? My best estimate is that it will cost the country approximately $ 4-6 billion.

Pick-up 3: World is watching If we take the most successful games that have been organised, I would rank the 2000 Sydney games higher up the agenda than the Beijing Olympiad, the logic being that the organisers clearly segmented the market to pre, during and after. In fact the marketing program was so successful in the ‘pre segment’ that it covered the total cost of the games. The organisers offered free airfare to all the 187,000 officials who came for the games. This is where Delhi failed to make the grade at the Commonwealth Games. The negative reports that got defused into the global media not only cast a dark cloud on the games but also on attracting pre-visitor business into the city. This is what Sri Lanka must take note of. Sri Lanka must be ready by 2016 with all its venues including the Athletes’ Village as most of the press comes in well before the event so that event gets the boost it requires to cover the cost as much possible. This is why the OCA warned Sri Lanka that it was ‘way behind the plan’ to stage the 2017 games and we must take note of this comment seriously. Lesson 4: Initial cost I am sure that Sri Lanka may have incurred a bidding cost to win the Asian Youth Games 2017. For instance, India had to offer a $100,000 to each member nation for their vote to beat the offer made by Hamilton of $ 70,000 to stage the Commonwealth Games. Separately, the oversight CEO had to be hosted for almost two years and the cost of the mansion that was required was $ 3,600 is what is being reported for just a month. However, its best to be up front and state what our stance is on the Games of 2017 as if we do not become the ideal host, the adverse perceptions globally will hurt brand Sri Lanka, which is already battered by the UN resolution that is in play with the OCHRC announcement of the fact-finding team due to the country in the near future. Even if we do not allow such global activity in Sri Lanka, we must be cognisant of the adverse media that will centre round it. In this perspective we must not let the 2017 Asian Youth Games add to the situation that we have to manage. Lesson 5: Star to drive project Be that it may, if Sri Lanka is going to drive towards staging the 2017 Games, then we must a ‘Lalith Modi’ of the world who can make the games happen. The UK picked the great Sebastian Coe, who saw London through to stage the 2012 Olympiad. The only difference must be that rather than just letting one man drive the project, it’s best to appoint a high-powered team to support the event such as a legal expert, senior accountant and professional marketer so that it becomes a business entity and works on corporate ethos rather than a one-man show like what happened in the case of IPL. Lesson 6: Private partnership Let’s accept it; governments are not good at running mega events is the learning around the world. The Administrative Regulations (ARs) and Financial Regulations (FRs) at play in Sri Lanka are a sure recipe for creating chaos when it comes to large procurement purchases that need qualitative criteria rather than just the lowest cost. Hence it is paramount that we pick up this learning and if we are staging the 2017 Asian Youth Games, make it a Private-Public Partnership. This will also drive an automatic governance model into the structure. Lesson 7: Mother Nature Even with all the planning, there are certain variables that cannot be controlled by man. For instance, Delhi was lashed with a monsoon just before the Commonwealth Games that threw the tight schedules into disarray, leading to a bridge collapsing at the games just one day before the event. Hence, Sri Lanka must be ready for any eventuality that Mother Nature can throw at us if we are staging the 2017 Games. Conclusion Whilst it is a very positive sign to see Sri Lanka thinking big and thinking ahead so that we can build Sri Lanka, we must be realistic given that there are resource constraints, especially with the unemployment level at a low ebb of 4.4% in Sri Lanka. (Rohantha Athukorala is a marketer by profession and serves on many organisations as a Board Director in the private, public and international public sector in Sri Lanka. He has twice won the ‘Marketing Achiever’ award, Business Achiever Award and recently a Global Leadership Award. The thoughts shared are strictly his personal views and have no link to the organisations he serves in Sri Lanka or globally.)