RI to begin Olympic drive in 1998: Hayono
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)