"Beijing Olympics, Expected to Cost $3 Billion... Actually Spent $16 Billion"

A performance is taking place at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics held on the afternoon of the 4th at the National Stadium in Beijing, China.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seoyoung Kwon] The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is estimated to have cost more than five times the originally planned budget.

On the 19th (local time), The Wall Street Journal reported that this outcome emerged from the Olympics, which China had pledged to hold as a low-cost event. After comprehensively analyzing government procurement announcements, construction records, and public documents from relevant ministries and local governments, The Wall Street Journal estimated that China spent at least $16 billion (approximately 19.1 trillion KRW) on this Olympics.

This amount is more than five times the $3 billion (approximately 3.6 trillion KRW) budget plan China submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during the 2014 bidding process. China had succeeded in hosting the Olympics by stating that it would significantly reduce costs by reusing facilities from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, unlike previous Winter Olympics. However, it was later revealed that at least 10 facilities were newly built from scratch.

The Wall Street Journal estimated that China overspent more than $800 million (approximately 960 billion KRW) solely on Olympic facilities. Additionally, contrary to the initial expectation by Beijing city and private partners that $1.5 billion (approximately 1.8 trillion KRW) would be spent on new construction and renovations, the actual expenditure reached $2.3 billion (approximately 2.7 trillion KRW).

Furthermore, The Wall Street Journal pointed out that China only submitted a budget to the IOC excluding indirect costs during the bidding process, resulting in much higher actual expenses. Typically, host countries include indirect costs in their projected budgets, but China excluded these from the outset.

The Wall Street Journal also revealed that China spent $12 billion (approximately 14.3 trillion KRW) on constructing high-speed trains and highways between Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province for the Olympics. Additionally, unexpected costs of at least $68 million (approximately 81.3 billion KRW) were incurred for COVID-19 prevention measures.

However, according to a paper published in 2020 by researchers at Oxford University, all Olympics held from 1960 to 2016 exceeded their initial budgets. One of the paper’s authors, Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, stated, "China and Beijing used this Olympics as a development project," and argued that "including such (development) costs in the Olympic budget is a mistake."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.