2017 WU Bidding Update: Evaluation Committee meets PM of Kazakhstan

ALMATY – During the Evaluation visit in Almaty, the FISU Evaluation Committee with Leonz Eder, Kairis Ulp, Roger Roth and Milan Augustin paid a visit to Astana, where the FISU representatives were received by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr Karim Massimov. Also present were the Minister for Tourism and Sport as well as the Minister for Education. Mr Massimov underlined the high significane for his country to host the Winter Universiade 2017. “With the Asian Winter Games 2011 we hosted for the first time a big international multi-sport event. We would be happy to deepen our experiences from that event, to learn more as organizers and to develop our skills in organizing the prestigious Winter Universiade,” Mr Massimov added.

On behalf of FISU, Vice-President Leonz Eder thanked the Prime Minister for the honor and the privilege to be received by him. “The full support of the highest political authorities of Kazakhstan for this project is a strong demonstration and commitment to FISU and to one of the flagships of our program”, Leonz Eder said. “Especially in a time of economic crisis in many countries of the world, your financial guarantee is very important for FISU”, Eder added. He also stressed the fact that Kazakhstan showed some outstanding results in previous Universiades, and he praised the goals of the government to support not only the elite sport, but also the development of mass sports especially at the Universities of Kazakhstan.

AlsoKairis Ulp, Roger Roth and Milan Augustin gave some comments on the evaluation visits. All of them pointed out that the sport facilities, most of them built for the Asian Winter Games, are of outstanding quality. Before closing the meeting, Leonz Eder presented an official FISU gift to Prime Minister Karim Massimov. The Prime Minister again said, that the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan as well as the City of Almaty will pay full attention to the project of hosting the 2017 Winter Universiade and will deliver any support both financially as also regarding infrastructure and human resources.

(Source: 2017 WU Almaty Bidding Committee)

 FISU Vice-President Eder with PM Massimov