South Africa’s Government Adds Further $$ to 2010 World Cup
Budget According to a recent addition
of Engineering News, the South
African government has added a further nearly $300 million to the
pot set aside for building the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums and
related infrastructure, bringing the total figure to nearly $3
billion ($2.8 billion).
The previous amount committed to the stadiums was $1.2 billion, and cost increases caused the National Treasury to assign an additional $171 million recently, in the 2008 Budget Review.
“Stadium construction is progressing rapidly, with all projects ahead of schedule,” it stated. “As a result, an additional $271 million was brought forward from 2008/09 by means of a special adjustments appropriation in 2007.”
Government has allocated $1.3 billion to public transport projects related to the World Cup.
The Treasury said that the Department of Communications would receive an extra $43 million to fund information and communications technology infrastructure at stadiums in time for the tournament.
It also allocated State-owned ICT firm Sentech an additional $37 million for the digitization of television broadcasting.
In an attempt to mitigate the negative effects that South Africa’s high crime rate might have on the World Cup, government said it would inject $91 million into the police force to deploy 31,000 police officials who will perform security functions during the event.
The U.S. Commercial Service in South Africa is prepared to assist U.S. firms interested in participating in any of these projects. For more detailed information on any of these projects, or about opportunities in the South African market, please contact Craig Allen, Senior Commercial Officer at Craig.Allen@mail.doc.gov or at +27 11 778-4809.
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