The Mediterranean Games of 2017, as a vaulting horse for Sustainable Development for the city of Alexandria

Under the Presidency of Amar Addadi, the Evaluation Commission of the Mediterranean Games in 2017, composed of the General Souhail Khoury, President, Nour El-Houda Karfoul and Dominique Petit and Sophie Metais,members held a meeting in Paris on 5th
July 2010. Tullio Paratore, also a member of the commission, was not able to attend the meeting , The commission, after having ascertained that the five candidature files for the organisation of the 2017 Mediterranean Games, Alexandria (EGY), Mersin (TUR), Rijeka (CRO), Tarragona (ESP) and Tripoli (LBA) were all received within the set deadline, heard the recommendations of the International Mediterranean Games Committee (ICMG), President regarding the nature of their mission, as well as the principles and values that the International Mediterranean Games Committee (ICMG), must preserve for the forthcoming Mediterranean Games editions.

The commission fixed the calendar of visits that to be proposed to the candidate cities, which will spread out between the
3rd week of September 2010 and the 1st week of January 2011.It is to be remembered that the report
of the evaluation commission will have to be written and presented to the Executive Committee members in March 2011,
before its distribution at the beginning of April to the ICMG General Assembly members, who will select the host city during the June 2011 session.                                                                                                                                                   International and national athletic events can affect sustainable development in the areas where they take place. The bidding
committee of the Mediterranean Games of Alexandria 2017 must utilize such event to consider the environmental concerns as an organizational priority and as the central operational principle for complete and perfectly organized Mediterranean Games in Alexandria.

It has been a long time since the foundations of regional Sustainable Development were established. The main characteristic of sustainable development is the promotion of perpetual life, and the main priority is the assurance of quality of life in all areas: environment, economy, culture, etc., for all people and forever.
Today, Sustainable Development as an objective resolving around four pillars or sectors: Social sector, Environmental sector, Economic sector and Cultural sector. These sectors affect and shape the conditions of sustainability of a city because their interactions determine the viability of Sustainable Development. In summary; sustainable development is to deal with improvement of living conditions of people.

In the context among other things, the design of the future is based on the active participation of citizens and other authorities. Their participation in democratic processes of co-decision allows them to learn about the causes, nature and consequences of problems and solutions.

The analysis of the internal environment of the city of Alexandria , taking advantage of the strengths and weaknesses and the
assessment of external environment, show that there are large areas of intervention, major objectives to which the city should
focus its efforts in order to achieve its development objectives. These objectives relate to the quality of life, education and research, the environment, social cohesion, tourism, industry and regional integration, culture and generally all those elements which it constitutes the broader term of Sustainable Development. Some of these objectives are:

• Strengthening the quality of life, infrastructure, environmental, aesthetic and the identity of the city.
• Enhancing the quality of human resources and a strong scientific – research Development pole with the University of Alexandria and the other private universities.
• Social cohesion and protect endangered human resources.
• Development of tourism of the city and the possibilities of leisure with exploiting the opportunities offered by the history, mythology, culture, the Universities , conferences, sport and the natural environment of the wider region.
• Strengthening of industrial identity of the city and the development of activities with emphasis on knowledge, innovation, quality and extraversion utilization.
• Use of the potential economic integration at local and regional level
• Natural resources protection.
• Protection and awareness of all to the environment Alexandria governorate must consider a series of projects and infrastructure for a sound and successful organization of 2017.
All this will be an important legacy for the city of Alexandria and Egypt in general, and will play a decisive role in sports, tourism, social and investment development of Alexandria. For this reason local actors in the region in cooperation with the competent ministries and corporate, should work together to provide the legacy of the Mediterranean games through Sustainable Development for the city of Alexandria.