Olympic venue construction on track

All competition venues for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games are on track to be completed by the end of this year, with provisions for epidemic prevention and control, a leading organizer said recently.

Zhang Jiandong, executive vice-president of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee and vice-mayor of Beijing, said in a recent interview that plans had been laid in the construction of venues and infrastructure to push forward preparations for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

"We are faced with new challenges for the preparations due to the epidemic outbreak, but timely adjustments helped us ensure the construction work will be done in time and up to standard," said Zhang, who is also a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress.

He said the production and transport of some imported equipment, such as a new type of ice- and snow-making machines, may lag somewhat, since the foreign experts and technical staff who adjust and assemble the machines had difficulty coming to China.

"We had to innovate ways to coordinate with overseas suppliers for customs clearances and to assist foreign experts arriving in China, to make sure that all infrastructure and venue construction would be finished by the end of this year," he said.

Zhang also spoke of the epidemic's impact on the sports industry in Beijing with large-scale events canceled and public sports venues closed.

"To ease the difficulties of sports enterprises and boost the economy, the municipal sports department in Beijing formulated 11 measures to integrate the development of national fitness and public health," he said.