OLYMPC contracts worth nearly �2 billion are still up for grabs with less than 1,000 days to go to the 2012 Games, company bosses have been told. There are still �1.7bn of contracts to be awarded

By Mike Brooke

OLYMPC contracts worth nearly �2 billion are still up for grabs with less than 1,000 days to go to the 2012 Games, company bosses have been told.

There are still �1.7bn of contracts to be awarded by the Olympics authority, a business summit’ at East London’s ExCeL centre heard.

The summit attracted 500 businesses yesterday from all over Britain who were given a chance to pitch their goods and services. Those who succeed will also being encouraged to use the experience to get more contracts from other host’ nations, such as Canada hosting the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, South Africa the FIFA 2010 World Cup, Russia the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, Brazil the FIFA 2014 World Cup and Rio the 2016 Olympics.

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell told them: “London 2012 is helping keep order books busy in these tough economic times.

“There is huge potential to get involved here and in other host’ countries. This opens the door for UK firms.”

The Olympics authority begins ramping up its procurement process soon, with deals for technology, security, facilities management, design and temporary construction. These include opportunities to make or supply everything from 900,000 pieces of sporting equipment to 17,000 beds for the Olympic Village, with thousands more companies getting a slice of the cake through the supply-chains.