Mercedes-Benz saloons, shopping companions and even celebrity chef Martin Yan have been drafted in to make sure international bankers and their spouses enjoy both working and free time during the conference.
Once arriving participants have been whisked through special immigration and baggage collection facilities at the airport they are taken to one of 3,867 rooms in 23 hotels booked by a special 'housing bureau' set up within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Heads of delegations are given the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz and the help of a police escort as they travel, while other participants and visitors get government-supplied chauffeur-driven saloons or shuttle minibuses.
The Government has established a planning team of about 160 officials on eight teams dealing with areas including social functions, cultural programmes and outings for spouses.
Another team co-ordinates the small army of translators who must provide simultaneous interpretation of the plenary sessions into the official languages of Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish, with German, Japanese and Putonghua also on offer and Cantonese used at press conferences.
Another 210 civil servants have been taken off their usual duties to act as personal hosts for each delegation, responsible for smoothing over any hitches with the hotels and going shopping and sightseeing if required.
