Preparations for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China are back underway, after being halted due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The organising committee announced that construction work resumed on venues at the end of last month. And last week the committee began soliciting for more sponsors for the Games.
The venues construction project at Chun’an County includes a velodrome for cycling events, five other venues, and villages for athletes, media and officials. The Olympic Council of Asia welcomed the restart of the work, with director general Husain Al-Musallam, saying: “This is very good news coming out of China and it highlights the effectiveness of the measures to contain and prevent the coronavirus in the city of Hangzhou and the province of Zhejiang.
“We sincerely hope that life is steadily returning to normal for the people and that they can go about their every-day work like before.
“We have full confidence and trust in the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee that they are making the safety of the people their top priority. The OCA supports the decisions of the COC and HAGOC and will continue to work closely with them in the coming weeks and months.”
The organisers are looking for sponsors in the categories of: internet safety, internet of things technology, photography, videography, non-alcoholic beverages, travel services, Western-style fast food and household kitchen appliances.
The Games already has commercial partners signed up. Seven brands are top-tier Official Partners – Alibaba Group, Alipay, Geely Group, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Telecom, China Mobile and Loong Airlines. There are also 24 franchised manufacturers and 14 franchised retailers for Games-related products, and seven offline stores and one online Tmall store for the products.
The organisers are now looking for both sponsors and suppliers. There are two tiers of sponsor – Official Partners and Official Sponsor. Supplier deals are available both exclusively and non-exclusively, to provide more opportunities for small and medium-sized companies.
Interested companies can apply for the positions online. Organisers will then invite them forward for negotiations.
China Daily reported that a Games official said the organising committee will “take full advantage of digital marketing methods, offer cooperation opportunities at official activities and integrate all-media marketing platforms to ensure the rights and interests of sponsors and suppliers.”
