Construction on the giant 35-hectare Singapore Sports Hub began in September 2010 with the facility scheduled to open in April next year.

It will include a new 55,000 capacity National Stadium with a retractable roof, a 3,000-capacity indoor Aquatic Centre, a 3,000-capacity multi-purpose Indoor Arena and the existing 13,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Construction on the Sports Hub began just one month after Singapore successfully hosted the inaugural 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, where Ng served as President of the Organising Committee.

The Singapore Rugby Union has already announced it plans to launch a bid to host the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens at the new National Stadium.


The 64-year-old Ng, a former sailor, is currently one of the leading contenders to replace Jacques Rogge as IOC President when the Belgian steps down from the position following at 12-year reign at the organisation's Buenos Aires on September 10 this year.

Rogge and Ng worked together close on establishing the Youth Olympics in 2010 and Ng said that the success of the event, as well as the construction of the Sport Hub, mean that Singapore could soon move for the Commonwealth Games.

"I think the success of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore has given us the experience as well as the confidence to go on and stage more big multi-sport events in the future," Ng told insidethegames here where he was attending the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).

"The construction of the Sports Hub will also be complete next year and that means we will then have the facilities to host a big multi-sport Games, for example a Commonwealth Games.

"I am sure that this is something all the relevant federations and organisations in Singapore will be looking at after building the Sports Hub.

"I think we will definitely need big events once it is complete because it is important to make use of such a world class facility that will have next year given the huge investment that has gone into it."

It is unclear as to whether Singapore would look to bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games or whether they will position themselves for a later bid in 2026.

The deadline for Commonwealth Games Associations and candidate cities to notify the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) of intention to bid for the 2022 edition of the event will be due either in March or April 2014.

A host city is due to be elected by the Commonwealth Games Associations at the CGF General Assembly at the end of 2015.

They will follow Glasgow in Scotland, who are hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and Gold Coast in Australia who are staging the 2018 edition of the competition.

At present, London appears one of the front-runners for the event after senior Government figures and the city's Mayor Boris Johnson said they would support a bid using the facilities put in place for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

However, the decision to bid must be made by Commonwealth Games England (CGE), who are currently debating whether to move for the event or not.

Other potential bids could come from South Africa, Sri Lanka, Canada and New Zealand, although all those countries have been quiet in recent months despite having all expressed an interest in bidding for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the past.

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