BEIJING - The Beijing Olympics, which open two years to the day, will act as a catalyst for political and social development in China, organising committee Secretary General Wang Wei said on Tuesday.

Many within the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had hoped awarding China the Games would help accelerate reform in the country.

"For the whole society, the Olympic Games will speed up reform and opening up," Wang said at a news conference in the Chinese capital. "Chinese people will have more opportunities to have international exchange with the rest of the world.

"I should say that China is on a fast track of development towards modernisation and the Olympic Games will act as a catalyst."

Wang, a former deputy secretary general of the Beijing municipality, said the government had learnt a lot from cooperating with the corporate world in staging the Olympics.

"I think the Games will speed up reform of the functionality of the government," he said, adding that he thought legislation had been "facilitated" by the Olympics.

"China is rapidly developing towards a society ruled by law," he said.

"In the staging of the Games we have introduced legislation ... at both national and local levels. Most of these issues would have been tackled through administrative procedures in the past."