Next month, the Beijing government will outline plans to spend 30 billion yuan (about HK$28 billion) on information technology projects for the 2008 Olympic Games and invite bidding from vendors. Flagging the move are executives at Growth Enterprise Market-listed systems integrator Capinfo - founded by four Beijing government agencies in 1998. It created the Web site Beijing used during the bidding process for the Games. The firm is also involved in the planning for the 2008 event's information technology needs. Chairman Chen Xinxiang said most of the projects would be open for public tender, with 16 major projects and 100 sub-projects already defined. 'Telecommunications is one. Digital broadcasting and digital TV is another project. The whole technology infrastructure system is another,' Mr Chen said. Two areas where Capinfo is already co-ordinating research are the delivery of multi-lingual services and wireless infrastructure. Sub-projects in these two areas are also likely to go out for bidding. One goal is to allow visitors to the Olympics sites to be able to access services and information in a number of languages. Institutions working on the problem include Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Voice compression is one of the major challenges. 'That means you speak Chinese, it becomes text, and it becomes voice again. That processing is very difficult,' Mr Chen said. On the wireless side, a private trunk radio network will be built to support emergency services at the venues, and links will be made to public networks run by China Telecom and China Unicom in order to provide consumer services. Over the years, major sporting events have become showcases for the latest in information technology, providing a chance for vendors to display their products and for host countries to impress the world with their use of cutting-edge technology. This summer's World Cup finals, hosted by South Korea and Japan, were used by companies such as Korea Telecom and Samsung to introduce videophone services and large-screen liquid crystal display panels. Considering that Beijing has ambitions to use the 2008 Olympics to present itself as technologically advanced, Mr Chen wonders if 30 billion yuan is enough. A separate call for bids on the official Beijing Olympics Web site will go out some time next year, Mr Chen said. In the case of the Web site, the International Olympic Committee, which oversees the Games globally, will have strict control over the site's development and awarding of a development contract. Capinfo had a first-half net profit of 6.4 million yuan, from 106 million yuan revenue.