Next year's Beijing Olympic Games should help to foster change
in China, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques
Rogge believes.
"I think that the Games will contribute to the evolution of
China," Rogge told Belgian newspaper De Tijd at the
weekend.
"The 20,000 journalists who come to the Games will show China as
it is. It speaks for itself that that will accelerate the social
evolution," the Belgian said.
China has promised to give foreign journalists unprecedented
freedom in reporting China during the Olympic Games. Rogge said he
would not be surprised if Beijing chose to extend these looser
press rules.
Some 500 days before the Beijing Games begin, Rogge added that
there were no budgetary problems.
Organizers of the 2012 London Games have faced criticism after
the British government last month more than doubled the estimated
cost of staging them to 9.3 billion pounds (US$18.21 billion).
Rogge said London had decided to regenerate a bigger area of
east London than just the Olympic site and was building more
apartments than were needed for the Olympic village.
"The nine billion pounds does not come from the Games alone. The
operational budget is 2.2 billion pounds and has not changed since
the award in 2005," he said.
Rogge's eight-year term in office comes to an end in 2009. He
said he had not yet decided whether to seek an extension.
"That is a decision that I will take after the Beijing Games.
There is then enough time to see if I will put myself forward as a
candidate," he said.
(China Daily via Reuters April 3, 2007)