Olympics bid group is set up

The Government has created an organisation that will study the feasibility of holding the Olympics in Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, yesterday issued a law establishing Falcon and Associates, which will"focus on Dubai and on key markets around the world for Dubai to achieve inward and outward social, economic and trade-related goals," according to the state news agency, WAM.

It will work alongside the media office of Sheikh Mohammed and "establish and own media-related commercial institutions and companies", said WAM. This week, Falcon and Associates was ordered to explore the possibility of Dubai hosting the 2020 Olympics, the 2020 Paralympics and the World Expo. All bids are united under the banner of the Dubai 2020 initiative. A decree yesterday also named Ahmad Abdullah al Sheikh, Sheikh Mohammed's media escort and the managing director of his media office, as chairman of Falcon and Associates. Giselle Davies, a former communications director of the International Olympic Committee, has been appointed as chief executive.

Sheikh Mohammed said the Dubai 2020 initiative "will address, in an integrated way, the building blocks that underpin social and economic progress - sport, education, culture, business, science, technology, health and the environment". newsdesk@thenational.ae