The United Nations and China agreed to promote a training project on strengthening volunteerism through the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games here on Wednesday.

Entitled "Strengthening Volunteerism for Development in China through the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games", the 1.4 million US dollars initiative is designed to enhance the capacity of Olympic volunteers and demonstrate volunteerism as an effective tool to achieve China's development.

The project was signed between the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), the Beijing Committee of the China Communist Youth League and the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE), the UN Development Program (UNDP) and UN Volunteers Program (UNV).

"The 2008 Olympic Games mark a tremendous opportunity to promote volunteerism in China. Through the project, the international expertise will help us build the capacity of Olympic volunteer managers as well as technical assistance," Liu Jian, head of BOCOG's volunteers department, said at the signing ceremony.

"The 2008 Olympic Games offers China and the world an opportunity to take a big step forward in raising global awareness of the power contributed by volunteers, not only to sport but to the well-being of whole society worldwide," said Subinay Nandy, UNKP Country Director in China.

The three-year project is to conduct pre-games volunteer trainings for a core group of 10,000 Olympic volunteer leaders, managers and trainers in volunteer recruitment, management and recognition.

It will also launch volunteer campaigns to raise environmental awareness in Beijing with various activities.

"Through this project with China, we are hoping to illustrate how the ingenuity, solidarity and creativity of volunteers can contribute to achieving the nation's development targets," said Ad de Raad, Executive Coordinator of UNV.