11/04/2006
NEWS STORY
Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry, Lim Hng Kiang, has admitted that the country's tourism board is "actively" looking at hosting a round of the Formula One World Championship.
"This is a very important proposition and we have to study the full impact and make a proper evaluation," he told Todayonline.com at International Enterprise Singapore on Monday. "It's not an easy evaluation to make."
With the 2008 regulations allowing for up to 20 events, it is known that India and Russia are already keen to get on board, while there is continued talk of South Africa and Mexico returning to the F1 fold.
As yet there is no plan in place for where the circuit might be located, however one likely location is the proposed resort at Marina Bay, though this has not been finalised. Four companies - Genting International, MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands and Harrah's Entertainment - have shown serious interest in the Marina Bay project, submitted their initial bids last week. However, these bids do not include provision of a race track.
Mr Lim suggested that a second round of bidding may not be necessary: "In all likelihood we may not need to call them up because we've gone through the process of meeting them," he said. "Our officials are meeting them now. We're going through the internal evaluation, then we make a decision.
"All I can say is that the four bids are very, very good bids, and it shows that they take us seriously and that they want to develop a very good product in Singapore."
Countries are keen to sign up to the F1 dream not merely for the prestige it brings but also for the boost it will give their tourism industry, though some of the recent additions to the Grand Prix calendar have already discovered that this is not necessarily the way of things.