Rio mayor praises private-sector Olympic investment

Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes said Monday that private-sector investment in the city's Olympic infrastructure projects will ensure the Games are delivered on time and within budget.

Paes said that Olympic legacy projects totalled 24.6 billion reals (seven billion US dollars), of which only seven billion reais would be publicly funded.

The 6.67 billion-real cost of new event venues includes a 64% participation from private investors, the mayor said.

"These projects would not have been considered if it were not for the Olympics," Paes was quoted as saying by official news service Agencia Brasil.

"We are showing that there is another Brazil, different to the one that is slow and doesn't work and doesn't deliver things on time. We have deadlines from the private sector, in which we have entrusted to carry out this work."

Paes said he was happy with the success of Olympic test events so far, playing down concerns about pollution at water venues.

"There were no problems at [last week's] sailing test event, nor were there any issues with the swimming marathon," Paes said. "People are talking about water quality but during the Olympics it won't be an issue."

"We almost had a month of test events using water from Guanabara Bay and there were no problems. To the contrary, everything went smoothly." Endi