Rogge happy with Sochi`s progress for 2014 Games

Moscow: IOC president Jacques Rogge gave his full support to the organisers of the 2014 Winter Olympics on Tuesday, saying he was very happy with Sochi`s progress.

"I am extremely pleased by the pace and quality of the preparations in Sochi," Rogge told a news conference in Moscow after signing a sponsorship deal with Visa, the world`s largest payment network.The Russian Black Sea resort, which was awarded the 2014 Games at the IOC session in Guatemala in July 2007, needs to build most of the sports venues and infrastructure from scratch. "Sochi was awarded the Games just a little over two years ago and I am very happy with the city`s progress," said Rogge. Sochi 2014 CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko said Visa`s IOC contract helped his city to raise its sponsorship budget to USD 850 million.Money from the private sector should come in handy as the Russian government announced earlier this year it was slashing its state budget for the 2014 Games by more than USD 600 million due to the economic crisis. Russia made an initial pledge to spend USD 12 billion in private and public money on developing the Black Sea resort. Bureau Report