The Science and Technology Olympics Exhibition at the Beijing International Exhibition Center was considered as much a propaganda exercise as it is vendors’ showcase, all of whom are official Olympic sponsors. China’s Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang stated at a news conference that the use of IT at the Beijing Olympic Games is aimed at addressing environmental concerns such as “zero emissions in the immediate Olympic Park area” and holding a “basically carbon-neutral Olympic Games.”

On display at exhibition which ended last May 25, 2008 were Samsung TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) mobile phones (making use of China’s limited, domestic 3G service that will be available to 15,000 users during the Olympics), traffic control systems, including a taxi tracking system to provide real-time road conditions to monitors and PTT (Push-To-Talk), which allows mobile handsets to function like walkie-talkies. (Source: “China shows off Olympics tech … sort of” by Steven Schwankert, Info World, IDG News Service)