Olympics merchandise to net $70m

Olympic merchandise is likely to net China at least $70 million, said Games organizers yesterday.

Yuan Bin, director of the Marketing Department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said she was "very optimistic" about reaching, or even exceeding, the target.

"We achieved our sales goal last year," Yuan said, although she declined to reveal how much money had been made by the Olympic licensing program.