[ad_1]
Because of good relations with Qatar, China has been entrusted with making a serious contribution to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. A number of components of the sporting occasion, which opened with a lot fanfare on November 20, have been developed by Chinese language companies, starting from stadiums and souvenirs to renewable vitality automobiles.
Maybe China’s most important contribution was its position within the improvement of the Lusail Stadium, the principle stadium for this 12 months’s World Cup. In 2016, China Railway Building Company received a $764 million contract to construct the stadium, which is able to host the opening ceremony and 10 video games, together with the ultimate, in a three way partnership with Qatar’s HBK.
Lusail Stadium was constructed within the seaside metropolis of Lusail within the north of Doha. The stadium was constructed with a membrane masking an space of 45,000 sq. meters, and has a capability of 92,000. It’s reported to be the most important membrane construction on this planet. The Lusail Stadium was formally handed over in December 2020 and has since been featured on the newly issued Qatari 10 riyal word – an encouraging signal for the Chinese language authorities.
China has additionally had a hand within the building of different World Cup stadiums in Qatar. For instance, on the Training Metropolis Stadium, the metal construction was made by a Chinese language firm. The identical goes for Stadium 974, which is comprised of 974 recycled transport containers, a few of which had been reportedly sourced from China.
Aside from the stadiums, China has additionally had a hand in establishing the renewable vitality infrastructure for the event, significantly the Al Kharsaah Photo voltaic Energy Plant. This plant was constructed by Chinese language firms in a desert space about 80 kilometers west of Doha, and is able to producing 800 megawatts of energy, offering one in every of Qatar’s principal sources of vitality for the World Cup.
China can also be concerned within the building of container homes designed to deal with visiting soccer followers. Since Qatar has solely about 11,000 sq. kilometers of land, the Qatari authorities has been pressured to construct some 6,000 container homes to accommodate these attending the event. This housing space, generally known as the ‘Followers’ Village’ gives lodging for round 12,000 individuals. Followers are additionally supplied with bus shuttle companies to and from World Cup venues. These buses, which embrace 1,500 buses and 888 electrical buses, have additionally been made in China.
Chinese language firms are among the many best sponsors of the event. In line with the London-based info companies firm GlobalData, Chinese language firms’ sponsorship income sits at $1.4 billion, outpacing the $1.1 billion from U.S. firms.
Unsurprisingly, maybe, China can also be the supply of lots of the souvenirs that FIFA has produced for the World Cup. These embrace flags, soccer sneakers, and desk soccer machines, in addition to the replicas of the event’s official trophy, that are being produced by the Dongguan Wagon Giftware firm in Guangdong province. Souvenirs that includes La’eeb, the official mascot of the 2022 World Cup, have additionally been produced in Dongguan.
No less than 4 elements clarify China’s shut involvement within the 2022 World Cup. The primary and most evident is the sturdy relations which have developed between China and Qatar in numerous sectors. Because the institution of diplomatic relations in 1988, the 2 nations have developed sturdy bilateral relations. China is at present one in every of Qatar’s largest buying and selling companions and Qatar is likely one of the principal sources of China’s vitality imports. Bilateral commerce continues to develop strongly. In 2021, it reached a excessive level of $17 billion, up 57 % in comparison with the earlier 12 months. Over the previous 10 years, China has additionally steadily elevated its funding in Qatar, taking important stakes in key infrastructure and vitality initiatives.
The second cause is regardless that China didn’t qualify for the World Cup, many Chinese language followers have traveled to Qatar for the occasion – between 5,000 and seven,000 tickets have been purchased by Chinese language residents – and China boasts one of many world’s largest World Cup tv audiences. This has provided the Chinese language authorities a chance to reveal to its those that their nation could make a serious contribution to a prestigious world occasion.
The third cause is that China’s involvement within the World Cup presents a chance for the advertising and marketing of its home firms. For China, sponsorship is a manner of introducing its manufacturers to the worldwide market, and it’s a matter of satisfaction that Chinese language merchandise are displayed aspect by aspect with extra established international manufacturers.
The fourth cause issues China’s longer-term ambitions. In 2011, a 12 months earlier than changing into president, Xi Jinping introduced China’s ambition of qualifying for the World Cup, internet hosting the World Cup, and, in time, lifting the trophy itself. To that finish, China has laid out plans to develop 70,000 soccer fields and 20,000 coaching facilities, and the development of no less than 12 soccer stadiums by 2030.
On this sense, the Chinese language authorities’s involvement within the preparations for the 2022 Qatar World Cup is a bridge to a longer-term achievement: particularly to sooner or later host the event itself.
[ad_2]
Source link
