Sports venue construction in China is on a fast track, with annual growth of 4.1 percent during the past decade, but the sector still has far to go before catching up with developed countries.

The number of sports venues in China is likely to hit 1.04 million by the end of 2008, or 7.9 facilities per 10,000 people, according to Chen Entang, vice director of economic department under China's General Administration of Sport.

Chen, speaking here on Monday at the International Sports Facilities Expo China 2008, said that some developed countries had an average of 200 sports venues per 10,000 people. The gap represented a huge development opportunity, he said.

Chen added that several major athletic events would be held in China in the next few years, including the 2009 World University Winter Games in the northeast city of Harbin, the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and the 2011 World Universiade in Shenzhen. The latter two cities are in southern China.

Spending on these events "would continue pumping up not only the sports venue industry, but also urban infrastructure, tourism and other sectors," he said.

Nicole Schroeter, general manager for Asia markets of sports surface producer Polytan, told Xinhua on Monday that the Chinese sports venue industry was not much affected by the global financial turmoil and "interesting projects" were expected to emerge.

Polytan, based in Germany, had participated in more than 90 projects in China in the past two decades, she said.

Many businesses had "turned their attention to China" amid the financial crisis, she added.

Ma Jian, a manager of business department of market leader China Sports Facility Construction Co., told Xinhua that the company's operations were "going well on schedule" and hadn't been affected much by the financial crisis".

Ma added that the company was aware of the pressure that the financial turmoil might impose on the real economy, but he was still confident of finding opportunities in the world's fasting-growing sports venue market.

The Expo ends on Tuesday.

(China Daily November 18, 2008)