Beijing Major Wang Qishan said here on Thursday that Beijing has confidence and ability to host a successful Olympic Games in 2008 and "leave China and the international sports with a unique legacy".

"Presenting a distinctive and high-level Olympic Games is a serious commitment that Beijing has made to the whole world," Wang said at a luncheon hosted by the Asia Society in Southern California.

Wang said Beijing has been preparing for the games "in a down-to-earth manner" trying to realize the objective of "Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and People's Olympics" set for the Beijing Olympics.

"At the moment, construction for 11 new facilities and some of temporary facilities and modified or expanded premises and associated facilities needed for the Beijing Games is underway," he told a gathering of about 3 hundred business people, politicians and academics.

The construction for all the venues and associated facilities is expected to conclude by the year-end of 2007, said Wang, who is on a visit to Los Angeles.

He dismissed worries that Beijing's economy would plummet after the games, just as some previous Olympic cities had experienced.

"Beijing is expected to continue its rapid economic growth for years to come after 2008, still less faster urban development and economic growth before and during the Olympic Games," Wang said.

For one thing, Beijing has vast outskirts and countryside, he said. "The Comprehensive City Plan for Beijing for the next 15 years approved by the Central Government clearly lays out the city' s functions, spatial structure and priorities," he said.

According to the plan, the construction of three more new towns in suburban Beijing will start immediately after the Olympic Games in 2008 to accommodate some of the functions, industries and population to be transferred from downtown.

"In doing so, functional transportation, educational, cultural and medical facilities are needed for the planned new towns," Wang said. "Meanwhile, we are starting to accelerate the formation of anew socialist countryside in Beijing. This and other initiatives are expected to generate immense demands for investment and consumption."

As the Olympic Games presents an opportunity not only for Beijing, but also for the world, "we will seize this opportunity to further deepen reforms, expand the scope of the open-up drive, draw upon the state-of-the-art technologies and success stories in the world and attract talent from home and abroad in an effort to develop Beijing up into an opener, innovative, harmonious and residents-friendly modern international metropolis," Wang added.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2006)