Beijing is focusing on upgrading technologies for better service
for the upcoming Olympic Games next year.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology said
most of its funds for technological upgrades in 2007 went to
Olympic-related projects, the Ministry of Science and Technology
website (www.most.gov.cn) reported on Tuesday.
The government contracted several research institutes and
hi-tech companies to build a multilingual call center for next
August's Games. The center would provide help in 12 major global
languages, the website said.
The hi-tech call center and self-service information kiosks,
which have been built along main Beijing streets, were tested and
proved effective in recent months.
The municipal government also encouraged local companies to
develop a computerized caption system in Chinese as an endeavor to
ensure accessibility to the visually impaired. The
Chinese-captioned video signals are to broadcast from the Olympic
media center for the first time, the website said.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games next year
had also contracted a few companies to enhance security
technologies for its official websites and intranet system.
An intelligent urban transport system, consisting of a control
headquarters and automatic monitoring sites surveying real-time
traffic conditions would be available before the Games began.
The municipal government didn't elaborate on how much was spent
on the upgrades because most of the projects were co-funded by the
central government.
In bidding to host the Games, China vowed to rapidly upgrade its
Olympic-related technologies and to provide better service for
global athletes and tourists.
(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2007)