Beijing police have set up a crack team of marksmen to security the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The 30 sharpshooters will be the first in line to deal with kidnappings, riots and incidents involving firearms, said Ma Qiang, a senior official with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. The city has invited international experts to comment on its security plans and is learning from other countries about security checks at public events. Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Public Security Bureau, said Beijing police are seeking extensive international cooperation on Olympic security. “We hope that wider participation by our international colleagues will help upgrade our security network for the Games”.
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Media Sub-centre has been set up in Qingdao, the host city of the 2008 Games sailing events. Organized by Sailing Committee (Qingdao) of Beijing 2008 Games the sub-centre will serve as the sub-organization of the Beijing Olympic Media Centre. It will provide Olympic information to all journalists as well as hold Olympic related press conferences. In 2007 the sub-centre will move to the International Sailing Marina, the venue for the 2008 sailing events.
The 2008 Beijing Games will create 1.8 million jobs in Beijing over the next four years and trigger 0.8 per cent annual growth for Beijing’s economic, reports Chinese media. Most of the new jobs will go to low-paid migrant construction workers. Beijing News reports that for the next two years most of the jobs will be in construction. “Job creation will peak in 2007 and 2008, when the service sector will show especially fast growth”, reports the newspaper.
Beijing plans to have 800 “high-class” hotels operating by 2008, up from more than 600 it now has, and expects 4.4 million overseas and 150 million domestic tourists during the 2008 Games, reports state media.
China has already poured about $4 billion into building the five main Olympic venues with about $1.5 billion to begin construction this year, reports state media.
Chinese Olympic organizers estimate the total cost for the 2008 Games should be about $40 billion, with most of the money going to construction of new roads and subway lines and efforts to improve the city’s power grid and environment.
