GENEVA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The International Skating Union (ISU) has vowed to make skating more exciting and popular worldwide on the basis of its Vision 2030 project, after the sport's global governing body approved significant modernization at the ISU Congress.

"Some of the initiatives that we are introducing are to enhance our engagement with fans through better TV production, enhanced digital engagement and more exciting event presentation. We also take measures to evolve and innovate our sports core products," ISU President Kim Jae-youl said on Thursday after a second day of meetings in Las Vegas, United States.

The 250 delegates voted in favor of the reform of the ISU Constitution, the launch of the Short Track World Tour - an evolution of the World Cup Series - and allowing manufacturers to appear on costumes and skates, opening up opportunities for fashion brands and skate manufacturers to partner with figure skaters.

"We are launching the Short Track World Tour to capture the maximum potential we can have with that sport. We are also taking measures to diversify our revenue stream, so we can generate enough income to invest back into the sport," Kim said.

The Vision 2030 project is the main topic of the Congress, which was presented by the president on the first day to promise more benefits to athletes, fans and sponsors.

"The support of Vision 2030 was overwhelming, and the members also supported all the key associated proposals. We put forward the budget proposal for the next two years, which is significantly higher than previous years. I'm very excited, because members shown great enthusiasm, and we are ready to take forward with our Vision 2030," the president said, noting that China is one of the ISU's key partners and wants to host more skating events in the future.

"China is willing to host more events. They have already hosted many events, but they want to do more. Not only in Beijing and Shanghai, but also Chongqing and other cities. They've already asked if they could host more short-track events, and we are even talking about bringing outdoor events for speed skating in the northern part of the China," he said.

"China is very keen on supporting our efforts to develop skaters in the region. China has amazing facilities from the [2022] Beijing Olympics. They want to take advantage of it, inviting skaters from different parts of the region and help them grow," Kim added. Enditem

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