2015年CRI Air and Snow Won't be Problems for Beijing Hosting Winter Olympics: Expert（在线收听）

Professor Gilbert Van Kerchhove from Belgium is the President and founder of a Beijing-based management consulting firm.

He was deeply involved in the preparations of for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Van Kerchhove says one of the main issues leading up to 2008 was air pollution.

He says this shouldn't be a major concern by 2022.

"Today the laobaixing the normal Chinese people are very well aware of the problem. The Chinese government is also very well aware of it. The Chinese government has already taken major decisions in the 12th five-year plan to try to tackle the issue of pollution. Now we are moving to another five-year plan and measures taken by the government are even more important."

At the same time, Van Kerchhove says the regional integration plans currently in-place are also going to make the 2022 Winter Olympics a lot easier to pull-off.

"This year the government has taken in Beijing very strict measures again, one of it being reducing the population of the city. Also the government is clamping down on any industrial development in the whole area of Beijing. Even some of the real estate regions that were planned have been taken back by the government. And they are now making green belts around Beijing."

Professor Gilbert Van Kerchhove talks about the challenges and opportunities thatBeijing is facing ahead to hold the Winter Olympics in 2022during a seminarorganized by the Beijing-based English website Sino-US.comon August 27, 2015. [Photo: Sino-US.com/Ding Yi]

One of the concerns raised by observers ahead of the successful bid for the Winter Olympics is the lack of snow the capital region gets during the winter.

Van Kerchhove says this issue can be overcome with proper resource management.

"It's very interesting when you check a little bit of water availability for ski resorts, you will be very surprised that most of the big ski resorts today around the world, I'm not talking even about China, they all suffer from not having enough water. Now the issue is not really that much availability of snow, it's really availability of water controlling also the management of the water."

Beijing will be home to the indoor winter events in 2022.

The alpine events are set to take place in the mountains to the north of Beijing in neighboring Hebei.

Professor Gilbert Van Kerchhove talks about the challenges and opportunities thatBeijing is facing ahead to hold the Winter Olympics in 2022during a seminarorganized by the Beijing-based English website Sino-US.comon August 27, 2015. [Photo: Sino-US.com/Ding Yi]