Developing good toilets is now an exciting subject, said Jack Sim, founder of World Toilet Organization, at the fourth session of World Toilet Summit opened in Beijing Wednesday.

Delegates from 15 members, including China, US, Russia and Japan, attended the summit discuss how quality of life, tourism, management and economy relate to toilets.

Sim noted that the urgent need for better toilets is due to people's basic need for health and hygiene as well as better investment returns.

"With the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in China, Beijing is an ideal backdrop and meeting place for this year's event," said Sim.

Beijing Vice Mayor Ji Lin stressed that though toilets are small they matter in a big way.

"The construction and management of the toilets in a city reflects the civilization of a country and also reflect the comprehensive strength of a country and living standard of the society," Sim said.

Beijing takes tourism as a chance to build over 700 star-level traveling toilets in the coming 3 years. It has already built over 2,000 standardized toilets, and 400 more standardized toilets will be built every year before 2008 Olympic Games.

Source: Xinhua