Olympic Council of Malaysia President Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja'afar has "not ruled out the possibility of a joint bid for the Olympic Games in the future." Tunku Imran said that "there have been initial talks" with neighboring Singapore on joint-hosting, but it will "all depend on the bidding process and cost." He said, "The IOC are constantly looking into the process, because they also realize that it is not cheap to even bid for the Games" (NEW STRAITS TIMES, 3/1).
Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli called for "coherent efforts to ensure the preparatory work for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games are green, inclusive, open and clean." Zhang made the remarks "at a high-level meeting which was attended by officials from relevant government departments, along with the heads of co-hosts Beijing and neighboring Hebei Province." Competition venues "are split into three clusters" for the 2022 Games, and Zhang stressed that plans for the clusters "should be integrated into the long-term development goals for Beijing and Hebei" (XINHUA, 3/1).
A 20-member advisory committee of the Japan Sports Agency on Wednesday "submitted a five-year strategic plan for sport to JSA Commissioner Daichi Suzuki," in which it revealed its aim to build a "100 million citizens sports society." The plan, which serves as a guideline for the agency's development of policies and programs for the second term starting in fiscal '17, "provides an overview of how to use the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as an opportunity to boost participation in sports nationwide" (KYODO, 3/1).
