China plans to build more gymnasiums and stadiums for other developing countries in the future to help the developing world promote sports, the State Sports General Administration said.

"Although China itself is a developing country, we will continue to provide aid to other developing countries to help them promote sports," said Liao Qianhui, general manager of the China Sports Industry Co-operation Company of the State Sports General Administration.

China has built more than 50 stadiums, gymnasiums and swimming pools in the past three decades in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific, Liao said.

These efforts are sufficient proof that China can fulfill its pledge to the Olympic Movement, Liao said.

In 1965, the China State Sports Commission, the former State Sports General Administration, established an office in charge of aid to foreign countries to construct sports facilities.

That office is now the China Sports Industry Co-operation Company.
The second year after the sports aid office was established, the Cambodian State Stadium, the first stadium China built for other countries, was completed.

Between 1966 and 1979, Chinese engineers and workers built two stadiums and three gymnasiums in Cambodia, Mongolia, Zanzibar, Somalia and Sierra Leone, according to the State Sports General Administration.

After the country began its economic reform and opened up to the outside world in late 1970s, Chinese engineers have built scores of sports centers in dozens of foreign countries, including Benin, Mauritania and Gambia in Africa, Pakistan and Myanmar in Asia, the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

Among those gymnasiums and stadiums, the National Stadium of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Zaire, is the largest with 80,000 seats.

China's contribution to the world sports development has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee. In April 1986, Chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch of IOC made a special visit to Beijing and presented the Olympic Cup, the highest Olympic honor, to the Chinese Olympic Committee.

(China Daily 05/17/2001)