The deputy premier of Serbia and the president of the Universiade Belgrade 2009 Organization Committee, Bozidar Djelic, addressed the media after the 18th session held today in University Village.
– We have worked intensively on the Universiade organization, especially since last Octobe. It is a great honor for us that the whole world has placed trust in our country. In the year of the sweeping financial crisis, it was quite a feat for our country to reduce the budget for the Universiade and, at the same time, fulfill and then surpass all the requirements.
The Organization Committee has reviewed all aspects of the Universiade organization before the University Village opening ceremony.
– Sports venues are ready. In a couple of days, work at Marakana will be finished. On that day, Belgrade will become, apart from Athens, the only city in the region with the Olympic quality athletic track. This will be one of the legacies of this year’s Universiade to Serbian athletes. Athletic Associations in Serbia have been given more than 300 million dinars in sports equipment and apparatus, Serbian economy has received a significant boost in the past two years thanks to the Universiade. Two-thirds of the 4.5 billion dinar budget has been invested in the country.
This autumn, 8700 newly renovated rooms will be available for university students, one thousand of them for students who are over 2 meters high.
– I would like to point out that, out of 650 million dinars, Simpo earned 500 million, while Ktitor earned 140 million dinars. It has been a big boost for these companies in the midst of the financial crisis. Our construction companies earned 460 million dinars. We reconstructed a series of venues that have been out of function or have been well below world standards for the past 10 or 20 years. The Universade is responsible for the completion of two new big sports complexes – Smederevo and Zrenjanin. That is true for Tasmajdan and Military Academy, too.
The deputy premier commended transparency of the Universiade management and organization.
– We are very proud that, from the moment we took over the management of this event, there has not been a single scandal in connection with the organization of the Universiade. All public procurements have been done in a transparent manner; we do favor local businesses and we do not hide that. We have managed to spend a lot of money without any scandal. On July 13th, we will render the accounting for the whole Universiade project- we managed not to exceed the budget by as much as a dinar.
Mr.Djelic spoke about very favorable reaction of foreign delegations to University Village in New Belgrade.
– First reactions of foreign athletes and delegations are very enthusiastic. Without doubt, this is the best Sports Village in the past twenty years, including the Olympic Games. This is also the first public and private sector partnership housing complex built in Serbia. The Univesiade starts in a week’s time. We are ready. I am sure that, when on July 12th, at midnight the Universiade ends, we will have every reason to be proud. We may not be the largest or the richest of the countries, but unlike some others who had to cancel much smaller sports events, Serbian resourcefulness and ingenuity in solving problems saved the day.