Busan Mayor Ahn Sang-young said Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, hopes to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
“After successfully holding the Asian Games, we will actively pursue becoming host to the Olympics. By holding the Olympics we hope to become a world-class city”.
He added, “I believe we can do a good job and the review of our facilities and preparations are almost complete”.
However the Asian Games now being held in Busan are being dogged by security fears, complains of chaotic organization and poor ticket sales, said officials.
The mayor said that those poor figures will not detract from the importance of the Asian Games to a possible Olympic bid and he confidently predicted that ticket sales will increase to 60 per cent by the end of the competition.
He said, “the Asian Games are a testing ground to judge whether or not the city and its citizens are capable of hosting the Olympics. For example we have already invested $1.3 billion in transport here. We are trying to gain the consensus of the citizens in our Olympic goal and we hope to be in a position to move forward by the end of the year”.
“We also expect not to be in the red as a result of hosting the Asian Games”.
