London, Jan 25 (IANS) British culture secretary Jeremy Hunt defended the doubling of the amount of money to be spent on the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in July as an ‘extraordinary business opportunity.’
‘There are tourists all over the world deciding which country to visit, students deciding which country to study in, and businessmen deciding where to invest in, and if you get something like the opening ceremony of the Olympics right, it is very good for our national brand in a way which is very hard to quantify,’ Hunt was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
‘But I have no doubt it will be extremely positive for British businesses and British jobs,’ he said.
The original budget of 41 million pounds (about $64 million) for the opening ceremony of the Games was almost doubled shortly before Christmas to 80 million pounds (about $125 million) with only eight months to go before the Olympics.
‘It was a decision we looked at very hard. It is less than the Canadians (for the Vancouver Winter Olympics) spent on their opening ceremonies and less than the Russians (for the 2014 Winter Olympics) are planning to spend on their opening ceremonies,’ said Hunt.
‘You would be questioning me much more critically if we had not made the most of the unique moment which is potentially going to be seen by 4 billion of the world’s 7 billion population,’ he added.
Hunt said despite the faltering economy, with growth this year penciled in as only 0.9 percent and with rising unemployment and the prospect of further cuts in government spending, the British government was ‘saying that we are not going with the conventional wisdom that at times of austerity you should rein back on absolutely everything, because we think that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’
Hunt revealed that the cost of the opening ceremony could have been even greater had director Danny Boyle had his way.
‘Boyle wanted a higher price tag than we were willing to pay, and so we came to an agreement for a ceremony that we can be very proud of.’
