Previous Olympic hosts are lending their hands to the organizers of the 2008 Games as experts from Australia and Greece came to share their experience with their Chinese counterparts.

 

Led by Major-general Sotirios Tsenes, a group of four security experts from Athens, the host city of the 2004 Olympics, opened a three-day seminar on Tuesday with Beijing's Olympic Security Coordination Group, coinciding with the launch of the representative office of the Sydney-Beijing Olympic Secretariat.

 

"The foundation of successful security work during the Olympic Games is to predict all the potential dangers and make beforehand preparations," Tsenes told the seminar.

 

"Strengthening cooperation with experienced international organizations is also important."

 

Last November, the coordination group for the Beijing Olympic Games signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics Security Cooperation" with the Ministry of Public Order of the Hellenic Republic, in a bid to enhance cooperation between the two sides.

 

Greece spent a record US$1.5 billion on security for the 2004 Olympics, the first summer games since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The Greeks also received regular security advice from several countries, including the US and Britain.

 

Besides security issues, the Beijing organizers will get more support from Australia as the permanent China representative office of Sydney-Beijing Olympic Secretariat (SBOS) was set up Tuesday.

 

"Australia's support for Beijing has a long history," said Sandy Hollway, senior adviser of SBOS and also the chief executive officer of the Sydney Olympics organizing committee.

 

"The work of SBOS since 2001 has been of great mutual benefit to Australia and to Beijing. Our office in China will be a continuous channel of communication and a continuous mechanism for cooperation between Australia and Beijing."

 

Sydney 2000 was dubbed the "best-ever" Olympics by former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2006)