A deputy to China's legislature has urged Beijing to step up the training of management professionals targeting the 2008 Olympic Games.

"The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics, for example, will need to recruit an additional 3,700 officials, 100,000 volunteers, 20,000 full-time service workers and a large contingent of security guards for the grand event," said Ji Baocheng, president of the Beijing-based Renmin University of China and deputy to the National People's Congress, on Monday.

During a panel discussion among NPC deputies from Beijing, Ji said competitive candidates from home and abroad are sure to standout, but "scientific and rational" personnel training is a pressing task.

He said the training should target senior management professionals of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics, athletes, coaches and referees, volunteers, security guards, service workers as well as men in the street. "In fact, top priority in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics is to improve the basic quality of the citizens," he said.

Beijing should set up a steering committee for the training and map out a comprehensive scheme as soon as possible to outline overall plans and detailed procedures including curriculum design, textbook compilation and recruitment of teachers, the NPC deputy said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2005)