RI to begin Olympic drive in 1998: Hayono
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman said yesterday that Indonesia would prepare a proposal to host the Asian Games in 2006 and the Olympic Games in 2008.
"If the President agrees, in 1998 Indonesia must start promoting itself to host the event," he said after a hearing with House Commission IX on religion, education, culture, youth affairs and sports.
Last week President Soeharto asked Hayono to assess the possibility of the country hosting the two major events.
Hayono said that to support the effort he needs a Presidential Decree or Constitutional Draft on Sports next year.
"We also have to improve the national sports structure to raise people's ability to support our efforts. We need the people's support because both events will need much greater funding than the SEA Games," he said.
Hayono is optimistic that the private sector will be able to contribute to the events.
"I think if we can host both events, we won't impose any burdens on the people because the private sector will manage the fund-raising professionally," he said.
The National Sports Council Vice Chairman Arie Sudewo said that Indonesia had planned to come fourth in the 2002 Asian Games by creating the Golden Garuda training project.
"But after we evaluated the project, we had to be more realistic. In 2002. We can only finish eighth in Asian Games and in 2006 we might finish sixth, all due to the more competitive situation among Asian countries," he said.
Hayono said that Indonesia is not lowering its sights but other countries have improved more quickly than expected. Citing an example, he said that Thailand aims to finish fifth in next year's Asian Games before its own public.
Hayono refuted the possibility that Indonesia could not gain a financial advantage from hosting the Olympics.
"Based on several Olympic Games, I don't think we will lose. Many investors will invest their money," he said.
Hayono indicated that the Asian and Olympic Games would not necessarily be hosted by Jakarta.
Hayono said that the Organizing Committee of the 19th SEA Games, to be held here in October, would receive Rp 20 billion (US$8.3 million) of the Rp 95 billion Games budget.
"The money will be received from sponsorship but we haven't got any of it yet," he said.
The Rp 95 billion is separate from the Rp 1 trillion budget to build the athletes' village.
Hayono said that the underwriting consortium chairman, President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, has to pay all the organizers' needs with his own money.
"The money comes from Pak Bambang. But I'm glad the athletes village construction is still going on," he said.
Enggartiasto Lukita, a consortium member, said that the village towers are already five floors high and are expected to be finished in September.
"Theoretically, we can finish each story in three days. The whole construction will be finished in June. Now we're starting the finishing process and the basement construction," he said.
Enggartiasto said that the first tower will have 1,011 rooms with each accommodating three athletes.
"We're also starting to build the second tower to enable the organizers to accommodate all the athletes in the village," he said.
From June to September, the construction will be cleaned and all the equipment checked.
"The most difficult thing is to prepare the human resources. If they can't serve the athletes well, they will give a bad image of us," he added.
Hayono said that he will visit Brunei Darussalam in March at the invitation of the Brunei Sports Minister.
"I won't go there to ask for financial help for the Games. We can afford to do it all ourselves. It's merely our understanding that Brunei should have hosted the event," he said, implying he would not turn down any offers of assistance from Brunei. (yan)