Construction Continues During Olympics

Beijing has confirmed that its construction projects will continue during the 2008 Olympics, even though there are serious concerns about the air quality and pollution levels in the city.

The majority of the Olympic venues will be completed before the end of the 2007.

Deputy director of Project Management for the Beijing Olympics, Xu Bo, confirmed that there have been cost overruns on some Olympic building projects, with some contractors facing bankruptcy.

Quote:

"It is true that certain construction companies are having problems with the fact that their actual spending on certain venues is beyond the expectation in their bid, and we are paying close attention to this issue. However, we are confident there will be no problems, because all the construction companies selected for the construction work of all the big projects for the Olympics, are first class enterprises in our country and we have done a strict inspection of their capability of implementing the contracts and they all passed our examination of qualification."

Executive deputy director of Project Management for 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sui Zhenjiang, said:

"The construction projects in Beijing will continue to be developed both before the Olympics and after it and they would not be stopped for the opening ceremony of the Olympics because every project has its own economic background and will be developed naturally.

However, before the Olympics, or during the process of the Olympics, we will conduct strict management to some projects in specific areas such as the places near the Olympic venues so as to make the air quality of Beijing better."

They of course haven't said how they will do this though.

Auditors Keep an Eye on Olympics

Li Jinhua, China's head auditor, has stated that he will be exercising special scrutiny of construction projects in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Li will also place emphasis on auditing social security funds and other big projects.

Last year auditors uncovered US$909M in illegally used social security funds, including a scandal in Shanghai that led to the sacking of city Party Secretary Chen Liangyu.

A former Beijing deputy mayor, Liu Zhihua, who was in charge of US$40BN in Olympic construction funds, was fired last year for alleged corruption.

Increasing auditing oversight is an important measure to ensure a "clean" Olympics, Li said.