(x) Other Issues
1. Some Assessors told us that the OC had prepared first-class hardware facilities for the Universiade, but its “soft power” needs to be improved in areas such as management, coordination, volunteer services and ability with foreign languages.
Response from the Volunteers Department:
A total of 25,000 Games-time volunteers will be recruited to serve the Shenzhen Universiade. They will mainly be university students from Shenzhen and other parts of China. To ensure the overall competence and service qualities of the volunteers, the Universiade Volunteers Coordination Office will go through rigorous recruitment procedures and background checks of the candidates, and then provide comprehensive training before allowing them to be Universiade volunteers.
All the Games-time volunteers are required to speak good English, and those who directly serve athletes, officials and coaches are required to have a higher level of English proficiency. The Coordination Office will provide different kinds of English-language training to meet the needs of different volunteer groups. In addition, a special group of volunteers, mainly recruited from universities in Guangzhou and Hong Kong SAR, will provide quality services in six other languages (French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Korean).
2. The Malaysian delegation wants halal food to be served.
Response from the Logistics Department:
The Athletes’ Dining Hall in the Universiade Village will provide athletes and team officials with halal food. Moreover, we have developed a halal catering service plan to meet the needs of Muslims during Ramadan. The following measures will be taken:
First, we will establish a halal catering service team consisting of chefs and staff from China and other countries. Those from China are mainly halal catering professionals who served the Beijing Olympic Games and the Guangzhou Asian Games. Most of those from other countries served the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar (a Muslim country); they were sent by the Global Infusion Group (GIG), a UK-based catering management company.
Second, we will strictly control the procurement channels and sources for the halal food. All the ingredients will be purchased from suppliers with halal certification.
Third, the Athletes’ Dining Hall will have a separate halal kitchen. We will set up the layout and operations of the kitchen to meet halal standards. The kitchen will have its own staff, tools, refrigerated area, and special equipment for cleaning and sterilizing. The preparation of halal food will be under tight control.
Fourth, we will improve the layout of the Athletes’ Dining Hall and the catering services. The Dining Hall will have dedicated halal food counters, where experienced Arabic-speaking staff will offer assistance. Muslim diners are free to go and eat in the halal catering area in the Dining Hall. All dining utensils used to pick up food will be disposable. Therefore, those utensils used for halal food will not have had any contact with non-halal food.
Fifth, we will develop balanced menus. Drawing upon the experience of the Beijing Olympic Games and the Guangzhou Asian Games, we have developed halal menus containing basic dishes, and we will have a special halal menu during Ramadan. The basic dishes will be of great variety and in accordance with the religious customs and dietary requirements of Muslims. The special Ramadan menu will include two types of food: food that can be digested slowly, including meat, dairy products and refined grains; food that can be digested quickly, including whole grains, vegetables and fruits.
Some official hotels cannot provide halal food. We will have halal meals delivered to Muslim guests who stay at such hotels. In addition, we will provide Muslim guests a list of excellent halal restaurants in the areas they often go, such as mosques, the hotels where they stay, and their competition and training venues.
