A Chinese Olympic logistics expert said here Thursday that the 29th Olympic Games to be held in Beijing will cost approximately 41.7 billion yuan (about US$5 billion) in logistics services.

Zhang Wenjie, head of the research group for logistics planning of the Beijing Olympic Games, made the remarks at the second China Senior Logistics Forum that ended in Beijing Thursday.

Also a professor of prestigious Beijing Jiaotong University, Zhang said the logistics demand for Beijing Olympic Games will exceed all previous Olympic Games in history, creating huge business opportunities for domestic and overseas logistics companies.

Statistics show that in 2008, more than 200 countries and regions will participate in the Beijing Olympic Games, and the set of apparatuses and equipment for athletes, officials and reporters will top 1.2 million pieces.

During the whole Olympic season in 2008, Zhang acknowledged, more than 75,000 tons of equipment and facilities will need to be transported, and over 2,000 transport vehicles of varying types will be used, which will surely bring business to logistics equipment manufacturers.

Beijing plans to build 360,000-sq-m athlete apartments in the Olympic garden. Zhang said the cost for removing and treating the household garbage collected from these flats will hit 1.08 billion yuan (about US$130.5 billion).

Zhang went on to say that with more and more transnational logistics companies, like UPS, DHL, TNT, entering the Chinese market, China's huge Olympic logistics demand will become the new target for these logistics giants from overseas.

At the same time, noted Zhang, the big logistics demand also attracted many leading domestic logistics companies, such as the COSCO logistics, China Shipping Logistics.

Under the tense competitions, China's local logistics service providers should learn from the advanced international experience and cultivate more logistics talents, so as to narrow the gaps between domestic and overseas logistics companies, Prof. Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2003)