Deputy prime minister John Prescott will lobby top Chinese officials in Beijing next week in an attempt to help British companies win contracts for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The city plans to spend £25bn on facilities and infrastructure before the games start, including £7bn on transport and £5bn on environmental improvements.

Prescott will join a British trade mission arriving in Beijing next Saturday after visiting Hong Kong and Chongqing, China's third-largest city.

The delegation includes representatives of architects Design Research Unit, HOK Sport and Terry Farrell & Partners; consultants Babtie, Invensys, EC Harris, WSP, Miller Hughes, Dewhurst Macfarlane and Mott MacDonald; quantity surveyor Gleeds; and multidisciplinary group WS Atkins.

Prescott is due to meet Liu Qi, mayor of Beijing and chairman of the games' Beijing organising committee, on Monday 20 May. The meeting will be attended by the British ambassador and Sir David Wright, chief executive of the DTI's export promotion agency Trade Partners UK.

While we have our sights on the Olympics, we are also looking at the expansion of Beijing

Colin Adams, chief executive, BCCB

Prescott and Chinese construction minister Wang Guangtao will also open a Sino-British construction seminar on the role of the public sector in China, the impact of China's membership of the World Trade Organisation and opportunities for British firms. Prescott will go on to meet Chinese premier Zhu Rongji later in the week.

The British Consultants and Construction Bureau is organising the mission. Chief executive Colin Adams said: "While we have our sights on the Olympics, we are also looking at the enormous expansion of Beijing that will generate more work than the Olympics itself."

Construction will begin next July on the 19 venues that are to be built in Beijing for the games. These will include an 80,000-seat stadium, an 18,000-seat gymnasium and 15,000-seat swimming pool.