The Beijing Olympic Security Coordination Group began three-day talks with its Greek counterpart Tuesday on the cooperative mechanism of Olympic security between the two sides. The Greek delegation, a consultative group from the Center for Security Studies of the Ministry of Public Order, is in Beijing to share its knowledge on Olympic security planning, Olympic venue security, Olympic security budget planning, and human resources assessment.
The permanent China representative office of the Sydney-Beijing Olympic Secretariat (SBOS) was set up Tuesday. Sandy Hollway, senior adviser of SBOS and the chief executive officer of Sydney’s Olympic Organizing Committee said, “Australia’s support for Beijing has a long history. The work of SBOS since 2001 has been of great mutual benefit to Australia and to Beijing. Our office in China will be a continuous channel of communication and a continuous mechanism for cooperation between Australia and Beijing.
Beijing will officially begin recruiting volunteers for the Games in June. Most will be University students. Qiang Wei, deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, said with young people as a main body the recruitment will be made nationwide and around the world. He said young volunteers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are welcome along with foreigners.
The Games will help Beijing have economic growth and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, said the city’s leading statisticians Monday. Because of the “Olympic factor” Beijing can expect its gross domestic product (GDP) after stripping out inflation to grow at 9.8 per cent a year leading to 2008, an 0.8 percentage point higher than the average growth between 2001 and 2005, said Wei Xiaozhen, a division director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. Also 1.82 million jobs will be created between 2004 and 2008 because of the Games. Wei told the China Daily “Beijing’s preparations for the Olympic Games also mean tremendous opportunities for foreign investors who could become part of the growth story through bidding or supplying accessory products and services”.
