Earlier this week I sat with the UK Sports Minister and leading members of the Hungarian Olympics and Paralympics Committees. Hugh Robertson was visiting to attend the Sports Ministerial Informal meeting at Gödöllő and at the end of his programme made time to meet our partners and ask what we could do to help them in their preparations for the 2012 Olympics Games.
Together with the Committees, we are looking forward to marking “500 days to go” to the Games on 16 March (watch this space). As part of that, we are planning to sign a cooperation agreement with the Paralympic Committee to assist them in preparations and promotional activity. We have worked with them before – I recently helped open the World Wheelchair Fencing Championships in Eger – but this will formalise our relationship and hopefully attract some publicity for the Committee’s important work.
The Minister encouraged Hungarian companies to bid for suitable tenders for the Olympics – some are already registered and at least one has won a sizable contract for stadium seating. Any Hungarian companies with international aspirations should also now be thinking about establishing a presence in the UK for 2012, when the eyes of the world will be turned to the UK.