In just one year's time the eyes of the world will turn to the UK as the greatest show on earth arrives in town.

London is the only city in the world to have hosted the Olympic Games three times and Britain invented or codified eight of the world's ten biggest sports. But it isn't just about our sporting success. When it comes to business achievement, we don't have to wait until next year to celebrate.

Today marks the completion of all the main Olympic and Paralympic venues - a full year ahead of schedule. Not only are they well ahead of time, they are also on budget. Alongside this are massive improvements to the transport infrastructure, also largely complete. And in September the private sector will complete Stratford City, Europe's largest shopping centre.

Cynics said that the whole programme was bound to overrun. They doubted the Government's ability to manage the process. They questioned whether UK construction firms were up to the job.

They pointed to delays and overruns on the Dome, the Channel Tunnel and the Scottish Parliament.

Over the last five years, some 40,000 workers and more than 1,500 businesses - along with a stellar line-up of some of this country's finest architects, designers and engineers - have delivered their answer.

To have completed Europe's largest construction project on time and on budget is an extraordinary achievement. The Olympic Park will now become a global showcase for the capabilities of the UK construction industry and an extraordinary advertisement for Britain's ability to deliver.

All of this happened in an area that was the dumping ground for London's waste for over a century. The soil in the Olympic Park area was contaminated with tar, coal, lead and arsenic and two million tonnes of it had to be recycled in the largest clear-up operation ever seen in the UK.

This was followed by a radical overhaul of local infrastructure including dismantling a landscape of electricity pylons and re-modelling power and water systems by creating miles of new tunnels to bury pipes and wirings.

Then the site received an extraordinary ecological makeover, with eight kilometres of new waterway, 4,000 trees and half-a-million new plants helping to shape the biggest urban park created for London since the Victorian age. From the start this project has aimed to set new standards in environmental sustainability as well as commercial viability.


And that's before we get to the venues themselves. Last week the stunning new velodrome was named on the shortlist for the 2011 Stirling Prize for architectural excellence. It is the lightest and fastest velodrome ever built and, alongside the Aquatics Centre, is likely to be one of the most visually striking legacies of the project.

Indeed, right from the start all the Olympic infrastructure was designed with legacy as well as 2012 use in mind. As the Closing Ceremony of the Paralympics concludes next year's celebrations, a brand new quarter for the capital will be opened with new housing, schools, medical facilities, park, business units - and of course the best sporting facilities in the country.

London 2012 is on track. We want our athletes to get as many gold medals as possible. But the real gold medal for the country will be the extraordinary regeneration in East London and what it says about Britain's ability to delivery world-class projects on time, on budget and to the highest possible standards.

Jeremy Hunt is the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport