Hong Kong has a chance of hosting some events for the Beijing Olympics, but a lot of red tape will have to be unravelled first, a top mainland sports official said yesterday. Yuan Weimin, president of the Chinese Olympic Committee and chief of the General Administration of Sport, said such a move would have to be agreed to by the sports involved as well as the International Olympic Committee. 'If we come up with a [sports] item, we also have to co-ordinate with the international organisations,' he said. 'The whole process is complicated. But this is not something we could not fight for,' Mr Yuan said, echoing the sentiments of the president of the Games organising committee, Liu Qi, last week. Mr Yuan also said the mainland would help Hong Kong bring in more mainland sporting talent as long as it was in accordance with regulations and the best use of resources. He added there would be many exchanges in the future as more major sports events were planned for the mainland, Macau and Hong Kong. Chinese Olympic Committee vice-president Yu Zaiqing said sports talent exchanges were common internationally and there were already some mainland athletes representing other countries. But he said all these exchanges had to be approved in advance between the mainland and overseas Olympic committees.
