Dato Zainal Abu Zarin of Malaysia, newly elected president of the Asia Paralympic Committee, declared in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that Guangzhou had won the bid to host the 2010 Asian Para-Games.

The Federation of Far East and South Pacific Games for the disabled and the Asian Paralympic Council merged to become the Asia Paralympic Committee at the FESPIC Federation General Assembly held on November 27 and 28.

Zarin declared that by a majority vote in favor of Guangzhou, Guangzhou won the bid to host the 2010 Asian Paralympic Games.

Su Zequn, deputy mayor of Guangzhou municipal government, said in his bidding statement: "Guangzhou has ideal sports facilities. There are over 10,000 sports facilities in Guangzhou, most of which are accessible to the disabled. There is also a comprehensive sports center specifically designed as a training base for disabled athletes."

"Guangzhou has won the bid to host 2010 Asian Games. The 44 competition venues and 44 training venues, which are going to be used for Guangzhou Asian Games, will be renovated before 2010 to meet special requirements of Asian Para-Games." he added.

When introducing Guangzhou's experiences in hosting major sport events, Su said: "With many highly-trained professionals and volunteers, Guangzhou has successfully hosted two National Games, one National Para-Games and numerous major international events.”

“The 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games will surely give us invaluable experiences and abundant human resources," he added

Su proposed that 2010 Asian Para-Games be held in the middle of December 2010, shortly after the scheduled Guangzhou Asian Games running from Nov. 11-27, which will benefit the Asian Para-Games in terms of publicity and resource sharing.

When responding to whether two Games would be held back-to-back, Zarin said that the case happened in Bangkok and Busan of South Korea and could grow into a trend.

"But as the Asia Paralympic Committee has just emerged, we have not thought about that and have not signed any agreement with the Asian Olympic Council."

(China Daily November 29, 2006)