Coe says 2012 project is creating and saving jobs

Published>Sat, Jul 24 10 01:37 AM

The 2012 London Olympics project is bucking the recession by creating and safeguarding jobs in vulnerable economic times, Games organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe said on Friday.

The British coalition government has cut 27 million pounds ($41 million) from the Olympic budget as part of its wide-ranging austerity measuers to tackle Britians's budget deficit.

"Every government department has been told they have to lose 25 percent of their budget over the next four years. So you recognise we are in a different monetary and fiscal era," Coe told reporters in a conference call.

"I would argue that more than ever the spin off from the games, 6.5 billion pounds worth of construction, the 10,500 people that are currently being employed in the Olympic park and the 700 million pounds we have earned this year by going to the market, these are sums of money and economic activity that has not only created but has most crucially safeguarded jobs in very vulnerable economic times.

"The value for money and the rate of return on investment, particularly given the fragility of the economy is one that as an economist I would be happy to defend and regularly do.

"So we have to continue to make very strong arguments that this is a project of national enormity."

Coe said the banking crisis and the ensuing world recession led to a collapse in confidence in Britain's national institutions, especially among the young.

But the Games chief, who said London 2012 would unashamedly target young people, is convinced the Olympics can re-engage the disaffected and help rebuild lost trust.

"The economic crisis was not just about banking and bank restructuring," he said. "It precipitated a monumental collapse in confidence in our institutions particularly among young people.

"I have always sensed that the Olympic movement has an opportunity to recalibrate some of our values and set them in the current context of friendship, respect, courage and determination."

Although he remains confident the games are on track financially and will be delivered on time, the double Olympic 1,500 metre champion used an athletics analogy to describe the importance of the current phase in the build up to 2012.

"It's like the killing zone in the 800," he said. "Everything you do in the back straight determines the platform you create in the finishing straight.

"I broke 13 world records, and I don't intend to break the 14th by being the first president of an organising committee not to have it ready on the day we're supposed to."

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