Olympic volunteer hopefuls from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan stand a better chance if they are bilingual.

　　港、澳、台地区会说中英两种语言的候选人被选拔为奥运会志愿者的可能性较大。

　　Priority will be given to applicants who have "special skills" and can speak languages other than English and Chinese.

　　此外，拥有"特殊技能"及会说除中英两种语言以外特殊语种的申请者将被优先考虑。

　　"We warmly welcome those people from above-mentioned areas, who are qualified for being a volunteer, to put in an application," Liu Jian, office director of Beijing Olympic Games Volunteer Work Coordination Group, said.

　　北京奥运会志愿者工作协调小组组长刘剑说："我们热烈欢迎以上地区符合条件的人士申请报名。"

　　Liu made the remarks yesterday at a press conference to officiallylaunch the volunteer recruitment drive from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign countries for the 2008 Games.

　　昨天，有关正式启动2008年北京奥运会港澳台同胞和外国人士志愿者招募工作的新闻发布会召开，刘剑在会上发表了此番言论。

　　Volunteer requirements can be found at the official website www.beijing2008.cn, or by calling the hotline on 8610-12308.

　　志愿者的招募条件可在北京奥运会官方网站www.beijing2008.cn上查询，也可拨打热线电话8610-12308咨询。

　　Recruitment for volunteers in Beijing began on August 28, 2006. In areas outside the capital, it began on January 19 this year.

　　北京地区的奥运志愿者招募工作从去年8月28日开始，全国其他地区的招募工作于今年1月19日启动。

　　To date, more than 400,000 people have sent in applications, more than 270,000 of them from Beijing.

　　截止到目前，全国的报名人数已超过40万，其中北京地区的报名人数超过27万。

　　"According to the latest application results, we still need a lot of volunteers with foreign language skills other than English," Li Binghua, executive vice-president of BOCOG, said.

　　北京奥组委的执行副主席李炳华说："按照目前志愿者的报名情况，奥组委还需要大量的除英语外的其他外语志愿者。"