The inaugural ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Partner Club was held on Wednesday in the Beijing Hotel. Such a club is BOCOG's new approach to enhance its cooperation and exchange with Beijing Olympic partners, as well as to facilitate the experience sharing among partners themselves.

Mr. Wang Qishan, Beijing mayor and the executive president of BOCOG presented at the ceremony the Partner Certificate and Club Membership Card to the Beijing 2008 partners and extended gratitude to them for their vigorous support to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Mr. Liu Jingmin, vice mayor of Beijing, executive vice president of BOCOG said in his speech that the 7 Beijing Olympic partners are all first-class enterprises and the 11 IOC's worldwide Olympic partners are major international brands that have a long history and rich experience of backing the Olympics. BOCOG is very delighted to make joint efforts with partners for the Beijing Olympics and hope the partners can have more market opportunities through sponsoring the Beijing Olympics.

On behalf of the Beijing Olympic partners, Li Lihui, president of Bank of China said in a speech that the Beijing Olympic partners will do their utmost to support the Olympic Movement, promote the Olympic Spirit, popularize the Olympic knowledge, carry out the concepts of  "Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and People's Olympics", and to provide strong support and guarantee for the realization of a high standard Olympic Games with unique characteristics.

Members of the club include 7 Beijing Olympic partners, Bank of China, China Network Communications Group, China Petrochemical Corporation, China Mobile Communications Corporation, Volkswagen Group China, Adidas Greater China, Air China Limited as well as IOC's worldwide Olympic Partners, Coco-Cola, Atos Origin, General Electric, Kodak, Lenovo, Manulife Sinochem, McDonald's, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa. Moreover, new Beijing Olympic Sponsors that are to be selected in future will also be in this club.

BOCOG will organize club activities regularly to keep the partners informed of the latest Olympic preparations, to collect suggestions from partners, and to facilitate them to share information and solve problems in a coordinated way.

Guests from the International Olympic Committee, the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Chinese Paralympic Committee are also presented in the ceremony.

(BOCOG February 4, 2005)