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Beijing to host fair for suppliers to 2008 Beijing Olympics
OUR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
April 8, 2005: The Associates Press reports that The 2008 beijing Olympic games organizers have invited the world's sporting equipment majors to Beijing for a fair. here, they will be given a chance to make their pitch for contracts worth millions of dollars in sporting equipment and also in stadium and other high tech facilities.
The participants of the show, schedled for April or May in Bejing, will be sports equipment manufacturers as well as construction companies specializing in such construction.
While Liu Zhi, a spokesman for the city government did not give examples of equipment sought by organizers or a total value for possible contracts, he said that a similar trade fair last year for marketing and sponsorship projects resulted in the signing of 10 deals worth a total of 21.5 billion yuan ($3.1 billion Cdn).
"This year will focus on the construction and operation of the Olympic venues," Liu said at a news conference. He said organizers of the 2008 beijing Olympic Games plan to make such trade fairs an annual event.
For the Chinese government, the Olympics is a matter of national pride and it is investing heavily into it. It is critical for the government to ensure smooth organization and conduct of the Olympics in 2008, as it is doing so in the face of several opponents who decry it due to its human rights record. The city and Chinese governments are moving full steam ahead, and Beijing will go through a prolonged construction boom till Olympics.
The budget for construction of facilities totals $3.2 billion US.
Organizers have thrown open the bidding process to foreign suppliers in an effort both to get the best equipment at low prices and to promote an image of Beijing as a capital open to world trade.
The Beijing Olympics organizers plan to have experts from Barcelona, site of the 1992 Summer Games, attend the trade show next month, along with officials from other past Olympic cities, Liu said.
OUR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
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