IOC impressed by progress in Olympic preparations

Scene of the meeting

(BEIJING, January 30) -- Following a project review held in Beijing on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was satisfied with the progress made in the preparatory work for the Games.

The meeting dealt with more than 20 topics, including transport, environment, and image and look.

The commission's chairman, Hein Verbruggen; Du Deyin, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress and deputy-mayor of the Beijing Olympic Village; and other officials from the Beijing municipality, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), the Chinese Olympic Committee and co-host cities attended the meeting.

In his speech at the end of the meeting, Liu Jingmin, executive vice-president of BOCOG and vice-mayor of Beijing, thanked the IOC and its Coordination Commission for their continued support and guidance of BOCOG.

During the past year, he said, with the support of the Chinese government and people, and the assistance of the IOC, progress has been made in the Olympic and Paralympic preparations, thus laying a solid foundation for the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This year is an Olympic year for China and the world, and the year for victory at the Games. At the moment, the preparations are moving towards full readiness. Today's review touched on the key issues of the preparations with an understanding reached on a wide range of topics, making a good start for this year's preparatory work. In the days to come, BOCOG will strengthen communication and cooperation with IOC to solve the issues on time and push the preparations forward, with an aim of staging a high-level Olympics with distinguishing features.

Mr. Verbruggen said with 191 days to go till the start of the Beijing Olympics, BOCOG has done a good job in its preparatory work. He is confident that Beijing is advancing steadily towards the goal of an excellent Olympics. He expressed hope that in the days to come, the two sides would enhance cooperation and work towards a splendid Olympics for the world.