On January 23, Beijing Mayor Chen Jining delivered a government work report to the Fourth Session of the 15th Municipal People’s Congress of Beijing. Chen said preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics entered the decisive sprint stage, and Beijing would complete various preparatory tasks and make every effort to host a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent Olympic Games.

In his report, Chen said that during the past five years, preparations for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics have proceeded in an orderly manner. All competition venues were completed, and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway and Beijing-Chongli Expressway were open to traffic. Beijing implemented the Sci-tech Winter Olympics action plan, released the Winter Olympics vision, emblem and mascot, and rolled out the "Sharing Winter Olympics" public participation plan. Mass ice and snow sports have become very popular.

Comprehensively fulfilling the capital’s functions to "successfully host the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, and further increase its international influence" has become one of the main goals for Beijing during the 14th Five-Year Plan.

At the decisive sprint stage, what is the focus of the preparatory work this year?

For high-quality completion of various preparatory tasks, the government work report clarified four major themes: "ensure the full readiness of all venues and facilities", "deepen event organization and venue operation", "strengthen event service guarantee", and "carefully organize promotional activities”.

'Persisting in holding the games as scheduled' and putting forward 11 requirements

On January 18th and 19th this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Hebei and Beijing and presided over a briefing on the preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. On the morning of January 21, the Beijing 2022 Organising Committee held a Party group expansion meeting and a chairman work meeting to convey and learn the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech during the inspection and deploy the key tasks in the next phase.

For the preparations, the meeting put forward 11 requirements, such as good venue construction and management, flexible organization and implementation of test activities, smooth and orderly operation of the Games, elaborate planning and publicity of cultural activities.

All venues and facilities to complete tests and inspections this year

At the end of 2020, all competition venues for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics were completed. This year, the non-competition venues and temporary facilities for the venues will also be completed.

All competition venues and facilities will be tested and inspected this year, and the construction and renovation of all non-competition venues such as the National Stadium and Winter Olympic Village will be completed.

In terms of event organization and venue operation, according to the changes of the pandemic situation, the strategy for testing competitions will be adjusted in a timely manner, and a series of testing activities such as snow and ice events will be flexibly held to complete testing.

In addition, we will also formulate lists of venue operation risks and emergency plans this year to improve the practicability and operability of response measures, and establish an operation risk management information system.

Ticket sales for Beijing Winter Olympics to be launched in due course

Service guarantee is a key link in the operation of the Games. According to the detailed division of tasks in the government work report, the Beijing Winter Olympics will establish an efficient operation command system, and coordinate preparations for catering, accommodation, medical care, transportation, and security to ensure that all peripheral guarantees and city operations are in place.

In addition, the recruitment and training of volunteers and urban volunteers for the Beijing Winter Olympics will also be completed this year.

The Beijing 2022 Organising Committee will also plan for retail outlets at venues and start ticket sales in due course.

How to implement the concept of "Sci-tech Winter Olympics"?

The Beijing Winter Olympics will implement the "Sci-tech Olympics" project to promote the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, 5G+8K, intelligent connected vehicles, and digital RMB in the Winter Olympics scene.

In addition, for promotion activities related to the Winter Olympics this year, some cultural events at important time points were also initially clarified.

Source: The Beijing News