Beijing's efforts to improve its environment have won the praise of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) working group who wound up a three-day visit to the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"We've been already informed during the evaluation stage that there is a very impressive budget of 12.6 billion US dollars to improve that (the environment)," Hein Verbruggen, head of the IOC working group, told a press conference at the end of the tour on Friday.

Beijing promised to make vast investments to improve the environment during its bid for the 2008 Olympiad.

"That's a very impressive program," said Verbruggen, who was also chairman of IOC Coordination Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games.

"The objective of that program is an overall improvement of Beijing's environment and an improvement of quality of life."

Since July 2001 when the Chinese capital city was awarded the right to host the Games, the municipal government has taken concrete measures to improve the environment. The efforts have begun to pay off as people in Beijing can see more and more blue skies and breathe much fresher air.

Verbruggen, who was on his third visit to Beijing, said he was much impressed with the improvement of the city's environment.

"We can conclude as we have our environmental specialist with us that this program is very much on track with already considerable improvements that can be noticed." he said.

The IOC team, made up of members of the IOC Coordination Committee and experts in a variety of fields such as traffic, environment, finance, security and marketing, held discussions with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) and paid visits to the Olympic Green and Wukesong Sports and Cultural Complex during their visit.

Close