Beijing Vice-Mayor Liu Jingmin said the Chinese capital will honour its commitments to organize the best ever Olympic Games in 2008.

"Of course it needs our continuous efforts in the following five years," said Liu, who is also the executive vice-president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), in an interview.

Liu said during the preparations for the Games, Beijing has done its work in various aspects ahead of schedule.

When talking about the long-awaited marketing plan, the vice-mayor said the plan will be unveiled in early September. BOCOG has signed the Marketing Plan Agreement with the IOC.

Liu said he is quite optimistic that profits will be made as a result of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games.

Except for the current eight sponsors of the Olympic Partner (TOP) programme for the 2008 Games, which are all foreign enterprises, Chinese companies are expected to have chances to be involved through negotiations with IOC, according to Liu.

He said: "Many Chinese enterprises have become global brands, even leading ones in their field." But he did not give the name list of the possible Chinese TOP sponsors.

TOP sponsors need to inject at least US$40 million into supporting the games, according to Liu.

He predicted the amount of TOP sponsors for the Beijing Games will reach 11 or 12 while the average figure for the previous Summer Olympics was 10.

Many Chinese enterprises have also expressed their intention to take part in the national partner programme, Liu said, but, as no agreement has yet been made, he did not reveal the identity of these firms.

A total of US$1.2 billion of the BOCOG operational budget is expected to be raised from the marketing programme, according to sources at the organizing committee.

Liu stressed Beijing will definitely guarantee public health security during the 2008 Olympic Games, learning lessons from the recent fight against SARS.

"A working system will be established within BOCOG to make the people involved in the Games and the numerous tourists epidemic-free," he said. "Preparatory work for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has not been influenced by the SARS situation in Beijing."

The plan to start building the four Olympic venues, including the National Stadium and the National Swimming Centre, by the end of this year will be carried out on time," he said.

"Only the schedule for some foreign-related activities was changed due to SARS," Liu said.

For example, the official presentation of the emblem for the games, which was originally scheduled to take place in May, will now go ahead next month. The launch of the marketing plan was postponed to September from June.

During the interview, Liu also said that auditing will be conducted once every six months before 2007 and once every three months after 2007 to make the Olympics an honest operation.

(China Daily 07/14/2003 page3)