Samsung undecided on sport financial help

JAKARTA (JP): South Korean electronic giant PT Samsung Electronics Indonesia (SEI) will decide early next year whether it will give financial support to the training program for the 2001 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

"We will make a decision about the issue in January. We haven't talked about cooperation with the National Sports Council (KONI) yet," said Lee Kang-hyun, the company's general manager for marketing on Thursday, during a journalists award ceremony staged by the company.

Samsung was one of the official sponsors for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and SEI supported the Indonesian contingent with financial aid and electronic goods.

Lee also said that his company was still considering sponsoring a sport in the biennial event.

"We have no idea which sport will be given our support. Currently, there are two sports which currently hire a South Korean coach, taekwondo and archery. We have not talked with them about sponsorships yet," he said.

Lee declined to reveal next year's budget for sports marketing, but he hinted that the amount is likely to equal this year's Rp 2 billion (US$ 210,527).

He expressed satisfaction on cooperating with KONI for the Olympics.

"The company believes that it has been successful in supporting the Indonesian team as they managed to win a gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the Sydney Olympics. But we still don't know the correlation with our selling figures in the country."

"It's more important that the public starts to relate Samsung with successful sports achievements because public brand awareness is extremely important."

Separately, taekwondoin Juana Wangsa Putri said that she was still practicing as part of a local training program organized by KONI.

"But I have not yet received a centralized training program which will start early next year. I am practicing with the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Taekwondoin Association in preparation for the SEA Games team selection and for the next Jakarta taekwondo championships," she said.

She also said that the selection would take place in the second LG national taekwondo championships next February. (ivy)