Intro:

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Bid Committee react on Tuesday, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously agreed that Oslo (Norway), Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China) would progress from the Applicant City Phase to the Candidate City Phase in the bid to host the Olympic Winter Games 2022.

Script:

The host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics, China's capital Beijing was approved by the IOC on Monday as one of the bidding candidates for the 2022 Winter Olympics, together with Oslo of Norway and Almaty of Kazakhstan.

The three cities must now submit their detailed bid files to the IOC by next January, before the host city is selected by the full IOC membership in Malaysia on the 31st of July 2015.

The 2022 bid race began with six cities, but has been cut in half by the withdrawals of Stockholm; Poland and Ukraine.

After the announcement Yang Shuan, The vice president of Beijing's bid committee told the press that they will be facing some stiff competiton.

SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Yang Shuan, vice chairman, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Bid Committee:

"Today, Beijing is approved as one of the candidate cities for 2022 Winter Olympics, this is just a small step for our bidding process. There are still 389 days left before July 31 2015, the day of IOC voting for the host city of the event. We are now on the new starting line, we know the competition ahead will be tougher and our work will be much more challenging."

Beijing is bidding to become the first city to host both the summer and winter games.

Chinese officials said they are aiming for a cheaper Olympics as they plan to use all the existing venues - and just need to build one speed skating venue in the Olympic Park and an Alpine skiing facility in a Beijing's suburb: Yanqing County.