Foreign news

China Is Ready To Embrace Green, Inclusive, Open, Clean Winter Olympics

Published

3 years ago

January 5, 2022

As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is around the corner, China’s preparation for the Games has entered the final stage.

In his New Year address last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country would spare no effort to present a great Winter Olympics to the world. “The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready,” he said.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspected preparations for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on Tuesday, 30 days ahead of the opening ceremony.

He also extended New Year greetings to athletes, coaches, volunteers and representatives of the operation teams, the media and scientific research staff.

The Chinese president has paid great attention to the preparations for the Olympics. Tuesday’s was his fifth inspection visit to Winter Olympic sites, following tours in January and February 2017, February 2019 and January 2021.

Venue construction

During his inspection in February 2019, Xi stressed that venue construction must meet Olympic standards and highlight the characteristics of technology, wisdom, environment and frugality.

On Tuesday, he visited the National Speed Skating Oval, locally known as the “Ice Ribbon,” which is among 12 competition venues and the only one built exclusively for ice competition. It is also an example of how China is delivering its promise of hosting green games.

The site uses carbon dioxide trans-critical direct ice-making technology, resulting almost zero carbon emissions. The waste heat in refrigeration can be further recycled, raising the energy efficiency by 30 to 40 percent.

During his inspection in February 2017, Xi said construction projects for the Winter Olympics should not be extravagant, with their post-Games usage taken into full consideration.

This instruction had been well-considered for the “Ice Ribbon.” Its 12,000-square-meter ice surface will become a playground for speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey and curling enthusiasts after the Games.

Service guarantee

When hosting a symposium on preparation for the Winter Olympics in February 2017, Xi noted operation and service work for the Games should be designed systematically and solidly promoted.

He also encouraged the games organizing committee to actively use modern technology, especially informatization and big data, to improve operation and efficiency.

Xi on Tuesday visited Main Media Center, Athletes’ Village, Games-time Operations Command Center and a winter sports training base, which are sites that are key to service delivery.

The Main Media Center, that covers an area of 211,000 square meters, will be the temporary home and office of some 3,000 journalists from more than 100 countries and regions and 12,000 broadcasters from over 200 networks.

Utilization of intelligent technologies across a wide array of areas makes this media center different from those in the past Olympic Games. Armies of robots will help to provide a wide range of services, working as guides and doing things from those related to COVID-19 prevention and control, to food delivery and food preparation.

The athletes’ village will provide full-time service for athletes, coaches and officials during the Games, 53 days in total, in the three competition zones – Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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