What does the giant golden key symbolize?

Amid pomp and ceremony, China launched the 2008 Olympics. Together with a Chinese counterpart, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, used a giant golden key to symbolically open what he called the most important market in the world. In his speech, he emphasized the power of the Olympic brand in China’s emerging market.

The charity group Plan International says 600 million Asian children are deprived of one of the seven basic needs used to define poverty, including food, safe water, shelter, health and education. And it says 350 million children, equivalent to the population of the European Union, are deprived of two or more basic needs, classifying them as absolutely poor.