Ramos opens first EAGA Games

Ramos opens first EAGA Games

GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines (Reuter): President Fidel Ramos
formally opened the first East Asian Growth Area (EAGA)
Friendship Games on Thursday, bringing together 700 athletes from
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Ramos flew to the southern city of General Santos to launch
the three-day competition, saying they were intended to expand
"our relations beyond just economic co-operation and trade to
people-to-people interaction."

EAGA is a so-called growth area linking remote islands of
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to Brunei.

The games will involve competitions in track and field,
badminton, basketball, swimming, soccer, archery and sepak
takraw, a badminton-type game in which a rattan ball is kicked by
players.