CHINA: The International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission head visits Beijing to judge its readiness for the Olympics in August

China's successful Olympic test events have paved the way to a successful Olympics, said Hein Verbruggen, head of the International Olympic Committee's Coordination Commission on Tuesday (October 23). Verbruggen has had a meeting with the Chinese Minister for Sports, Liu Peng, to discuss the progress of the Olympic sites' developments. "The triumph thus far of these events and the positive feedback that we have received from many of the participants and from the international federation gives us great optimism for the Games next August, especially because we still have some time to deal with the issues that did crop up during these sport events," said Hein Verbruggen. Olympic test events have recently taken place across China under the slogan 'Good Luck Beijing', teams from across the world participated and provided the officials and venue staff with a taste of what was to come next August. "Today, we had the opportunity to examine the progress being made in Hong Kong and to visit the sites of the equestrian events and once again we are seeing top quality venues being built for the Games and with the strong equestrian tradition in Hong Kong we are convinced that we will see some great equestrian performances in 2008," said Hein Verbruggen. Chinese Minister for Sports, Liu Peng, assured Hein Verbruggen that the Chinese government attached great importance to the Olympics. "The 17th Communist Party Congress has just finished, they put high importance on the 2008 Olympic preparations and organisation and in completing the demands and the organisation for the 2008 Olympics," said Liu Peng. Hein Verbruggen and his team will continue to inspect China's Olympic venues for the next two days in the run up to a world conference hosted in China on Environment and Sports on Thursday.

ITN Source | October 23, 2007

Tags:. .during. .performances. .under. .continue. .international