Beijing organisers are building 20 competition sites, 33 training venues and renovating another six buildings, but have been told to hold back due to cash flow worries.
Jacques Rogge, IOC president, admitted a request to delay plans was unprecedented: “Usually, it’s the other way round.”
Kevin Gosper, IOC vice president, said: “They’re using cash earlier than necessary and our advice was to rearrange the cash flow. It’s sensible business management.”
Liu Jingmin, a Beijing deputy mayor and vice president of the organising committee, said organisers would re-evaluate venues being built, including the 100,000-capacity national stadium, and those yet to be built.
“There will be some changes to individual projects”, he said. “All will be done by 2007 to allow time for proper testing of them.”
He added that the changes would not cause organisers to spend more than the planned limit of $2billion for new venues.
