Civil aviation, construction, tourism, catering ... the Chinese media have started compiling a list of sectors set to reap benefits from the Beijing Olympic Games.

On the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, investors have been falling over themselves to buy shares in listed companies in these sectors.

Aware that Atlanta, Sydney and Athens all enjoyed an economic Olympic boom, no one wants to miss out on China's Olympic business winners -- whether they are big-time multinationals or single-room workshops.

"When Beijing won the bid to host the Olympics, voices were heard saying that foreign-funded companies would not be given sufficient access," said Zhang Wenkui, Deputy Director of the Enterprises Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council and marketing consultant for the Beijing Organizing Committee.

"At that time, foreign firms thought China's market was not open enough," Zhang said. "Interestingly enough, when FAW won the first Beijing Olympics Global Partnership, most of the complaints were from Chinese enterprises."

In 2005, United Parcel Service (UPS), a U.S.-based courier, was granted the First Olympics Sponsorship. In 2006, the company opened its first retail centers in Shanghai and is thinking of setting up network outlets in colleges and hotels.

"This is no coincidence," said Yuan Gangming, a well-known economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"UPS may have spent 100 million US dollars on the sponsorship bid and may not recover all that money from the Beijing Olympics themselves," he said, "but the potential benefits from cultivating the market and developing their image are incalculable."

China's express delivery market was worth more than 10 billion yuan in 2006 and is growing by 30 percent annually. Research conducted by Samsung, the Korean electronics giant, showed that 70 percent of Chinese people pay attention to sports, far higher than runner-up Italy with only 50 percent.

These statistics explain why the heavyweights, such as UPS, pre-invested so much.

Few events can focus global attention like the Olypmics. China is using the Games to build its image. So are firms.

The Beijing Olympics will not only generate direct profits but also establish a publicity stage watched by the county's 1.3 billion people, said Jeff Immelt, Chief Executive Officer of General Electric (GE).

Awarded an Olympic partnership, GE is promoting its power-generator renting business to Beijing's stadiums.

"GE's Beijing infrastructure and Olympic stadium sales will reach 800 million US dollars by 2008," Immelt said.

Companies from China and overseas are all trying to get in on the act and profit from the Beijing Olympics in one form or another.

ITT, the U.S.-based water treatment company, cut itself a slice of Olympic cake worth eight million yuan when it won the contract to provide pumping solutions for canoeing.

In March, English First, a Swiss-based group, was selected to give language training to the Olympic crew.

DHL, a leading German post company, chose to sponsor China's national badminton team to enhance recognition among its small- and medium-sized customers in China.

"Sponsors like the Bank of China, Yili Group, Volkswagen, Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, BHP Billiton and Beifa Group are deeply embedded in China's economy," said Ding Yuanzhu, a researcher with the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission.

"The ramifications extend up- and downstream for miles," he said. "These companies all have partners and subcontractors who are also influenced by the Beijing Olympics."

"Whether it's a cow farmer connected to the Yili Group, Standard Chartered Bank investing in Beifa Group, Samsung selling its mobile phones or PricewaterhouseCoopers auditing the Bank of China," he said, "everybody is on board."

Beijing plans to spend 290 billion yuan on Olympic-related projects. Goldman Sachs predicted that Games spending would add 1,376 billion yuan to China's GDP, close enough to the country's estimate of 1,500 billion yuan.

Like it or not, the Olympic economy has become a micro-image of China's development and affects all aspects of the economy.

"The sponsors and all the companies connected to them, whether they are domestic or foreign-funded, have their fortunes firmly tied to the Olympics," Zhang said. "Let's hope that domestic and foreign-funded companies all enjoy an Olympic dividend."

Source: Xinhua