Feature: Quake-hit L'Aquila ready for G8 summit
- Source: Xinhua
- [18:00 July 07 2009]
- Comments
L'Aquila, the central Italian city battered by a devastating earthquake in April, is now ready for the G8 summit to be held from Wednesday to Friday.
The government announced a surprising decision on April 23 to move the summit venue from La Maddalena to L'Aquila, where a 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed some 300 people and left tens of thousands more homeless.
The government, which has been hoping for "an austere" summit, chose the Coppito Finance Police College as the venue, one of the biggest non-commissioned officers' schools in Italy which housed most of the emergency services after the quake.
The central hall of the college will be used as the main conference center. Some 1,000 rooms have been prepared to accommodate the delegations and tents have been erected on the sports ground as press centers.
Delegations from the eight industrialized countries and from emerging countries, as well as representatives of regional and world organizations such as the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will attend the summit.
More than 3,000 journalists have registered to cover the event.
The participants represent more than 90 percent of the world's GDP, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.
The delegations will be accommodated at the college during the summit, while the journalists in Chieti and Pescara, two cities some 100 km from L'Aquila.
The furniture to be used at the summit was all made in Italy, and most of it will be moved to houses built for the quake-displaced people after the meeting. Some of the unique pieces in the VIP rooms will be auctioned to raise reconstruction funds.
The government has suspended the Schengen Treaty from June 28 to July 15. Some roads leading to the summit venue will be closed until Saturday. A total of 15,000 policemen and army trooops have been mobilized to boost security at border crossings in L'Aquila and Rome.