The Information Office of the Government of Heilongjiang Provincial held a news conference for the 2018 Bandy World Championship Men’s Group B Championships. Mr. Xing Aiguo, Deputy Secretary – General of the People ‘ s Government of Heilongjiang Province, Yang Tao, Secretary for Sport of Heilongjiang Province and Zhu Zhiqiang, President of Harbin Sport University, attended the conference.
“In order to cooperate with Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, to promote the popularity, reputation and influence of Heilongjiang and Harbin, as well as to promote the development of the Bandy project in Heilongjiang Province and even the whole country, Heilongjiang Province puts forward to bid for the 2018 World Bandy Championships Men’s Group B event, and was approved by the Federation of International Bandy. The event will be held in Harbin from January 27th to February 5th. At that time, there will be nearly 200 athletes from eight participating countries, including China, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Estonia and other countries. The annual FIB Congress and Executive Committee Meeting will also be held there. The venue of the competition is Harbin Sports University.
As a strong province of winter sports in China, Heilongjiang, owning to its advantages of “ice and snow”, is at the forefront of promoting winter sports and winter-featured sports industry in China. Winter sports events are the media for the inheritance and development of ice and snow culture, the catalyst for promoting ice and snow tourism and the development of ice and snow industry, and the important activities for building the “ice and snow” brand of Longjiang River and the business card of the city. The successful holding of the World Bandy Championships in Heilongjiang for the first time will be conducive to the expansion of the influence and the implementation of the slogan, “300 million people participating in ice and snow sports”, which helps to push Bandy into a formal event of the Winter Olympic Games and add more brilliance to the history of the Winter Olympics. This event being held in Heilongjiang Province, helps to promote the far-reaching influence of the bandy movement in Harbin and even the whole country. It is a rather important bandy movement being also an international event in Heilongjiang province this year to carry out “a series of activities to enjoy the winter sports and share ice and snow”.
According to Professor Zhu Zhiqiang, president of Harbin Sport University, in order to make more people know and participate in Bandy, the project will be widely popularized and promoted in Heilongjiang Province and the whole country. Besides, to attract more people to participate in winter sports, the provincial government, relies on the advantages of ice and snow resources in Heilongjiang Province, becomes the first province in China to host the Bandy World Championships Men’s Group B event. And at the same time, it got the approval of the State Administration of Sports Management Center for Winter Sports and the Federation of International Bandy. What’s more, FIB approved the establishment of the International Bandy Sports Institute in Harbin Sports University in order to better develop Bandy.