The campaign for the 2008 Olympics Games is going more intense as five candidate cities will attend the meeting of the IOC Executive Board for bid presentation on Wednesday, December 13.

The bidders have received the IOC's invitation for the meeting, the first official occasion for the five cities to make presentation before the IOC executive members.

"It is the first impression, so it is very important," said Liu Qi, Beijing Mayor and President of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Bidding Committee.

Beijing, along with Paris, Istanbul, Osaka and Toronto, had been accepted by the IOC as the five bidders in August and the final decision will be made in July at Moscow.

Beijing bidding committee, which bound for Lausanne on Monday, showed full confidence in winning support from the presentation for which each candidate is allowed a total of 10 minutes.

"We need to give a brief introduction on our bid preparation in 10 minutes, but I think we are well-prepared for the presentation," said Liu, who will give a two-minute speech in English at the meeting.

Liu added that the presentation is only one of their priorities in bidding for the Games.

"We are working on the bidding report, which need to be presented to the IOC in January. and in February the IOC evaluation commission will start the tour of the five bidding cities. All this are very important," Liu said.

(People's Daily 12/11/2000)