The coming Olympics created 600, 000 jobs every year since the preparations started in 2001, a senior official with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) said in Beijing Friday.

Liu Jingmin, vice mayor of Beijing and executive vice president of the BOCOG, said at a press briefing that Beijing has benefited from preparations for the coming Games, which is scheduled to open on August 8, 2008.

In the past five years, Liu said, the annual increase of gross domestic product (GDP) in Beijing reached 12.1 percent averagely, with the amount last year at 770 billion yuan (US$102.7 billion) and the per capita figure at US$6,300.

Beijing also saw 3.9 million overseas tourist arrivals in 2006, one million more than that in 2001, Liu said

Meanwhile, the coming Olympics helped Beijing improve its urban planning and better transport networks, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)