Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told a Sochi 2014 Supervisory Board meeting Tuesday that funds raised by Sochi’s organizing committee have exceeded government expectations.
He said, “we are working at a good rate and I believe that we have laid significant groundwork to ensure the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are hosted to the highest possible level”.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, Sochi 2014 President and CEO added, “the success of partnership and commercial program will now allow us to use funds generated by Sochi 2014 for the 2009-2010 development period, postponing the need for the state funds guaranteed by the government. The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee is committed to ensuring that 80 per cent of the budget for staging the Winter Games comes through private funding, and we are delivering on our financial promises. I can confirm that the organizing committee has successfully generated more than $500 million through our marketing program in the first five months of 2009”.
Also discussed was the approval of Sochi 2014’s “innovative” environmental strategy. Chernyshenko said, “we are constantly working to preserve the natural life and improve the environment of the North Caucasus. We have an ongoing dialogue with leading environmental scientists and have reached an agreement in principle with manor non-governmental ecological organizations”.
Meanwhile Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently told the International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspectors that all construction and financing plans for the Sochi 2014 Games will be met.
IOC committee head Jean Claude Killy had urged Russian organizers not to waste any time with what is seen as an ambitious project, report Earth Times. He said, “time is not a luxury that we have to play with on this project. The Sochi team must therefore ensure that it makes its decisions in a timely manner so as to maintain its ambitious schedule”.
