Contracts worth over a billion pounds are still up for grabs, delegates attending the London 2012 Business Summit at ExCeL were told yesterday.

The London Organising Committee (LOCOG) and Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) have yet to award roughly £1.7bn worth of contracts.

LOCOG will begin procurement in the autumn awarding over £700m of contracts in eight sectors including technology, security and ceremony delivery. While most of the ODA’s contracts have now been let, there is still up to a billion worth of goods and services still to be procured. Available contracts include facilities management, design and temporary construction.

Lord Mandelson, business secretary, said: “Today’s event showcases the £1.7bn still on offer for businesses in the London 2012 Olympic project, and the springboard it provides to win business in other sporting events worldwide.

“With both government and business working together, companies of all sizes across the UK can share in Olympic gold.”

Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister, said: “Today shows that there are still plenty of opportunities for British businesses to benefit from the Olympics. In these tough economic times London 2012 is helping to keep order books busy. The skill and ingenuity of the whole country is helping deliver the Games, which are on time and on budget.

“With host countries like, Russia, Brazil and South Africa needing to develop their infrastructure beyond just the sports events there is huge potential for UK businesses to get involved and London 2012 opens the door for them.”

London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe said: “There are now less than 1,000 days to go until the start of London 2012 and already millions of people are being inspired by, benefitting from and delivering the Games.

“Businesses all over the country have already won billions of pounds worth of contracts with the ODA on the construction of the Olympic Park, which is within budget and on schedule – a testament to the quality of work done so far. LOCOG, the Organising Committee, now moves from planning to delivery and as we seek to procure the goods and services we need to stage a successful Games, we will be contracting around £700m worth of work.

“From 900,000 pieces of sporting equipment to 17,000 or so beds for the Olympic Village, opportunities exist for companies of all sizes to be part of London 2012.”